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X I B R.ARY 
OF  THE 
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or  ILLINOIS 

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I 


THE 


LADIES  OF  THE  COYENAWT. 

MEMOIRS  OF  DISTINGUISHED 

SCOTTISH  FEMALE  CHARACTERS, 


EMBRACING  THE 

PERIOD  OF  THE  COVENANT  AND  THE  PERSECUTION. 


BY  REV.  JAMES  ANDERSON. 


R E D F I E L D 

34  SEEK  MAN  STREET,  NEW  YORK 

1855. 


Fourth  Edition.] 


q yL  0 > ^ 


PREFACE. 


N 


In  collecting  materials  for  “ The  Martyrs  of  the  Bass,”  pub- 
~ lished  some  time  ago,  in  a volume  entitled  “ The  Bass  Rock,”  it 
occurred  to  the  author,  from  the  various  notices  he  met  with  of 
ladies  who  were  distinguished  for  their  patriotic  interest  or  suf- 
ferings in  the  cause  of  nonconformity,  during  the  period  of  the 
Covenant,  and  particularly,  during  the  period  of  the  persecution, 
that  sketches  of  the  most  eminent  or  best  known  of  these  ladies 
would  be  neither  uninteresting  nor  unedifying.  In  undertaking 
^uch  a work  at  this  distance  of  time,  he  is  aware  of  the  disad- 
jVantage  under  which  he  labors,  from  the  poverty  of  the  materials 
^at  his  disposal,  compared  with  the  more  abundant  store  from 
^ which  a contemporary  writer  might  have  executed  the  same  task. 
5pHe,  however,  flatters  himself  that  the  materials  which,  with  some 
^ industry,  he  has  collected,  are  not  unworthy  of  being  brought  to 
light ; the  more  especially  as  the  female  biography  of  the  days 
C of  the  Covenant,  and  of  the  persecution,  is  a field  which  has  been 
, trodden  by  no  preceding  writer,  and  which  may,  therefore,  be 
i presumed  to^have  something  of  the  freshness  of  novelty. 

The  facts  in  these  lives  have  been  gathered  from  a widely- 
j^scattered  variety  of  authorities,  both  manuscript  and  printed. 
From  the  voluminous  manuscript  records  of  the  privy  council, 


4 


PREFACE. 


deposited  in  her  majesty’s  general  register-house,  Edinburgh,  and 
from  the  Wodrow  MSS.,  belonging  to  the  library  of  the  faculty 
of  advocates,  Edinburgh,  the  author  has  derived  much  assistance. 
The  former  of  these  documents  he  was  obligingly  permitted  to 
consult  by  William  Pitt  Dundas,  Esq.,  deputy-clerk  of  her  maj- 
esty’s register-house.  And  to  the  Wodrow  MSS.,  he  has,,  at  all 
times,  obtained  the  readiest  access,  through  the  liberality  of  the 
curators  of  the  advocates’  library,  and  the  kind  attentions  of  the 
librarians.  He  has  also  had  equally  ready  access  to  such  books 
in  that  invaluable  library,  many  of  them  rare  and  expensive,  as 
served  to  illustrate  his  subject.  In  the  course  of  the  work,  he 
has  had  occasion  to  acknowledge  his  obligations  to  several  gen- 
tlemen, from  whom  he  has  obtained  important  information.  As 
to  some  of  the  ladies  of  rank  here  noticed,  there  probably  exist, 
in  the  form  of  letters,  and  other  documents,  materials  for  more 
fully  illustrating  their  lives,  among  the  family  manuscripts  of 
their  descendants,  to  which  the  author  has  not  had  access.  The 
publication  of  such  papers,  if  they  exist,  or  of  selections  from 
such  other  papers  as  relate  to  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  trans- 
actions of  Scotland  in  the  olden  time,  which  may  be  lying,  moth- 
eaten  and  mouldering  away,  in  the  repositories  of  our  noble 
families,  would  furnish  valuable  contributions  to  this  department 
of  the  literature  of  our  country ; and  an  example,  in  this  respect, 
well,  worthy  of  imitation,  has  been  set  by  Lord  Inndsay,  in  his 
very  interesting  work  entitled,  ‘‘  Lives  of  the  Lindsays.” 

These  Biographies  it  has  been  thought  proper  to  precede  by 
an  Introduction,  containing  various  miscellaneous  observations 
bearing  on  the  subject,  but  the  chief  object  of  which  is  to  give  a 
general  view  of  the  patriotic  interest  in  the  cause  of  religion  taken 
by  the  ladies  of  Scotland,  during  the  period  which  these  inquiries 
embrace.  The  Appendix  consists  of  a number  of  papers  illus- 
trative of  passages  in  the  text ; some  of  which  have  been  previ- 


PREFACE. 


5 


oiisly  printed,  and  others  of  which  are  now  printed  fram  the 
originals,  or  from  copies,  for  the  first  time. 

In  compiling  these  memoirs  it  has  been  the  aim  of  the  author 
throughout  to  -reduce  within  moderate  limits  his  multifarious 

o 

materials,  which  might  easily  have  been  spread  over  •^a  much 
larger  surface.  At  the  same  time,  he  has  endeavored  to  bring 
together  the  most  important  facts  to  be  known  from  accessible 
sources  respecting  these  excellent  women,  and  has  even  intro- 
duced a variety  nf  minute  particulars  in  their  history,  which  he 
was  at  considerable,  and,  as  some  may  think,  unnecessary  pains 
to  discover.  ^But  he  believes  that  careful  research  into  minute 
particulars,  in  the  lives  of  ladies  so  eminent,  and  who  were 
closely  connected  with  so  important  a period  of  the  history  of 
our  church,  as  that  of  the  struggles  and  sufferings  of  the  Scottish 
Covenanters  in  the  cause  of  religious  and  civil  liberty,  is  not  to 
be  considered  as  altogether  unnecessary  labor.  “ As  to  some 
departments  of  history  and  biography,”  says  Foster, ‘‘I  never 
can  bring  myself  to  feel  that  it  is  worth  while  to  undergo  all  this 
labor ; but,”  speaking  of  the  English  Puritans,  he  adds,  ‘‘  with 
respect  to  that  noble  race  of  saints,  of  which  the  world  will  not 
see  the  like  again  (for  in  the  millennium  good  men  will  not  be 
formed  and  sublimed  amidst  persecution),  it  is  difficult  to  say 
what  degree  of  minute  investigation  is  too  much — especially  in 
an  age  in  which  it  is  the  fashion  to  misrepresent  and  decry 
them.”*  This  remark  is  equally  applicable  to  the  Scottish  cov- 
enantelrs.  Their  pre-eminent  worth  warrants  and  will  reward 
the  fullest  investigation  into  their  history,  independent  of  the 
light  which  this  will  throw  on  the  character  and  manners  of  their 
age.  Of  course,  it  is  not  meant  to  affirm  that  they  were  exalted 
above  the  errors  and  infirmities  of  humanity,  or  that  we  are  im- 
plicitly to  follow  them  in  everything,  whether  in  sentiment  or  in 
* Poster’s  Life,  vol.  ii.,  p.  127. 

1* 


6 


PREFACE. 


action,  as  if  we  had  not  as  good  a right  to  act  on  the  great  prot- 
estant  principle  of  judging  for  ourselves,  as  they  had ; or  as  if 
they  had  been  inspired  like  prophets  and  apostles.  But  it  may 
be  safely  asserted  that,  though  not  entitled  to  be  ranked  as  per- 
fect and  inspired  men,  they  had  attained  to  an  elevation  and 
compass  of  Christian  character,  which  would  have  rendered  them 
no  unmeet  associates  and  coadjutors  of  prophets  and  apostles  ; 
and  even  many  of  their  measures,  ecclesiastical  and  civil,  bore 
the  stamp  of  such  maturity  of  wisdom,  as  showed  them  to  be  in 
advance,  not  only  of  their  own  age,  but  even  of  ours,  and  the  de- 
feat of  which  measures,  it  may  be  said,  without  exaggeration, 
has  thrown  back  the  religious  condition  of  Britain  and  Ireland 
for  centuries. 


Edinburgh,  September ^ 1850. 


J.  A. 


CONTENTS. 


Introduction page  9 

Lady  Anne  Cunningham,  Marchioness  of  Hamilton 27 

Lady  Boyd - 36 

Elizabeth  Melvill,  Lady  Culross 49 

Lady  Jane  Campbell,  Viscountess  of  Kenmure 62 

Lady  Margaret  Douglas,  Marchioness  of  Argyll 86 

Mr&.  James  Guthrie Ill 

Mrs.  James  Durham 118 

Mrs.  John  Carstairs 124 

Lady  Anne,  Duchess  of  Hamilton 129 

Mrs.  William  Veitch 159 

Mrs.  John  Livingstone,  &c 181 

Lady  Anne  Lindsay,  Duchess  of  Rothes 199 

Lady  Mary  Johnston,  Countess  of  Crawford 213 

Barbara  Cunningham,  Lady  Caldwell - 220 

Lady  Colvill 241 

Catharine  Rigg,  Lady  Cavers 253 

Isabel  Alison - 272 

Marion  Harvey 288 

Helen  Johnston,  Lady  Graden 300 

Lilias  Dunbar,  Mrs.  Campbell 313 

Margaret  M‘Lauchlan  and  Margaret  Wilson 340 

Lady  Anne  Mackenzie,  Countess  of  Balcarres,  afterward  Countess 

of  Argyll 356 

Henrietta  Lindsay,  Lady  Campbell  of  Auchinbreck 395 

Grisell  Hume,  Lady  Baillie  of  Jerviswood 428 

Lady  Catharine  Hamilton,  Duchess  of  Atholl 459 


8 


CONTENTS. 


APPENDIX. 


No.  I. — Letter  of  Mr.  Robert  M‘Ward  to  Lady  Ardross page  473 

II. — The  Marchioness  of  Argyll’s  Interview  with  Middleton, 

after  the  Condemnation  of  her  Husband 473 

III.  — Marchioness  of  Argyll,  and  her  Son  the  Earl  of  Argyll. . 474 

IV.  — Letter  of  Mrs.  John  Carstairs  to  her  Husband 474 

V. — Suspected  Corruption  of  Clarendon’s  History 475 

VI. — Indictment  of  Isabel  Alison  and  Marion  Harvey 476 

VII. — Apprehension  of  Hume  of  Graden,  and  the  Scuffle  in 

which  Thomas  Ker  of  Heyhope  was  killed 479 

VIII. — The  Fiery  Cross  carried  through  the  Shire  of  Moray  in 

1679 480 

IX. — Desired  Extension  of  the  Indulgence  to  Morayshire 484 

X. — Sense  in  which  the  Covenanters  refused  to  say,  “ God 

save  the  King!” 486 

XI. — Countess  of  Argyll’s  Sympathy  with  the  Covenanters 487 

XII. — A Letter  of  the  Earl  of  Argyll  to  his  Lady,  in  Ciphers. . 488 

XIII.  — Extracts  from  a Letter  of  the  Countess  of  Argyll  to  her 

Son  Colin,  Earl  of  Balcarres 489 

XIV.  — Sufferings  of  Sir  Duncan  Campbell  of  Auchinbreck 493 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  period  embraced  in  the  following  sketches  is  the  reigns 
of  James  VL,  his  son,  and  two  grandsons  ; but  more  particularly 
the  reigns  of  his  two  grandsons,  Charles  II.  and  James  YIL,  the 
materials  for  illustrating  the  lives  of  such  of  our  female  worthies 
as  lived  during  their  reigns,  being  most  abundant.  All  the  ladies 
here  sketched,  whether  in  humble  life  or  in  exalted  stations,  were 
distinguished,  by  their  zeal  or  by  their  sufferings,  in  the  cause  of 
religious  truth  ; and  it  is  by  this  zeal  and  these  sufferings  that  the 
most  of  them  are  now  best  known  to  us.  Our  notices,  then,  it  is 
obvious,  will  be  chiefly  historical,  though  not  so  exclusively  his- 
torical as  to  forbid  the  introduction  of  such  illustrations  of  the 
personal  piety  of  these  ladies  as  time  has  spared ; and  of  such 
portions  of  their  domestic  history  as  may  seem  to  be  invested 
with  interest,  and  to  furnish  matter  of  instruction. 

It  is  first  of  all  worthy  of  special  notice,  that  the  peculiar  ec- 
clesiastical principles  contended  for,  or  sympathized  with,  by  all 
these  ladies,  were  substantially  the  same.  This  arose  from  the 
circumstance  that  all  these  monarchs  sought  to  subvert  substan- 
tially the  same  ecclesiastical  principles.  Bent  on  the  acquisi- 
tion of  absolute  power,  they  avowedly  and  perseveringly  labored 
.to  overturn  the  presbyterian  government  of  the  Scottish  church, 
which,  from  its  favorable  tendency  to  the  cause  of  liberty,  was 
an  obstruction  in  their  path ; and  to  impose,  by  force,  upon  the 
Scottish  people,  the  prelatic  hierarchy,  which  promised  to  be  more 
subservient  to  their  wishes.  As  to  the  means  for  attaining  this 
object,  all  these  monarchs  were  unprincipled  and  unscrupulous  ; 
and  each,  more  degenerate  than  his  predecessor,  became,  to  an 
increasing  degree,  reckless  in  the  measures  he  adopted.  James 
VI.,  who  plumed  himself  on  his  king-craft,  endeavored,  by  cor- 
rupting and  overawing  the  general  assemblies  of  the  church,  to 
get  them  to  destroy  their  liberties;  by  introducing  with  their  own 


10 


INTRODUCTION  TO 


hands,  prelacy,  and  the  ceremonies  of  the  Anglican  church. 
Charles  I.  adopted-  a more  bold,  direct,  and  expeditious  course, 
attempting  to  impose  a book  of  canons  and  a liturgy  by  his  sole 
authority,  without  consulting  any  church  judicatory  whatever ; 
in  which,  however,  he,  failed  of  success,  his  tyranny  issuing  in 
the  triumph  of  the  cause  he  intended  to  destroy.  Charles  11. , 
following  in  the  steps  of  his  father,  proceeded,  on  his  restoration, 
to  establish  prelacy  on  the  ruins  of  presbytery  in  like  manner  by 
his  sole  authority  ; and,  having  more  in  his  power  than  his  father, 
to  enforce  conformity  by  the  exaction  of  fines,  by  imprisonment, 
banishment,  torture,  public  executions,  and  massacres  in  the 
fidds.  James  YIL,  who  went  even  further  than  his  brother, 
father,  or  grandfather,  attempted  to  exercise  absolute  power  in  a 
more  unmitigated  form  than  they  had  ever  done,  and  determined, 
what  none  of  them  had  ventured  to  do,  to  make  popery  the  es- 
tablished religion  throughout  his  dominions.  And  in  this  infat- 
uated course  he  obstinately  persevered,  till  he  alienated  from  him 
the  great  body  of  his  subjects  of  all  ranks,  and  till,  after  a short 
reign  of  three  years,  he  was  driven  from  his  throne.  Thus,  the 
same  ecclesiastical  principles  being  assailed  by  all  these  mon- 
archs,  the  testimony  of  our  presbyterian  ancestors,  under  all  their 
reigns,  was  substantially  the  same.  The  great  principles  for 
which  they  contended  may  be  reduced  to  these  three^  from  which 
all  the  rest  flow  as  corollaries  : First,  that  Christ  is  the  alone  king 
and  head  of  his  church,  having  the  alone  right  to  appoint  her 
form  of  government ; secondly,  that  presbytery  is  the  only  form 
of  church  government  which  he  has  instituted  in  his  word ; and 
thirdly,  that  the  church  is  free  in  her  government  from  every  other 
jurisdiction,  except  that  of  Christ.  These  principles,  all  the 
ladies  sketched  in  this  volume  either  maintained  or  sympathized 
with ; and  many  of  them  suffered  much  in  their  behalf.  During 
the  whole  extent  of  the  period  we  have  embraced,  there  is  evi- 
dence of  the  existence  of  a public  religious  spirit  among  the 
women  of  Scotland,  and  as  we  advance  downward,  we  find  this 
spirit  becoming  more  generally  diffused. 

In  the  reign  of  James  YL,  ladies  in  every  station  of  life  warm- 
ly espoused  the  cause  of  the  ministers  who  opposed  the  monarch 
in  his  attempts  to  establish  prelacy.  Some  of  them  even  wielded 
the  pen  in  the  cause  with  no  small  effect.  The  wives  of  Mr. 
James  Lawson  and  Mr.  Walter  Balcanquil,  ministers  of  Edin- 
burgh, wrote  vigorously  in  defence  of  their  husbands,  who  had 
been  compelled  to  fly  to  England  for  having  publicly  condemned 
in  their  sermons  black  acts,  as  they  were  called,  of  the  ser- 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


11 


vile  parliament  of  1684,  by  which  presbytery  was  overthrown, 
and  the  libeities  of  the  church  laid  at  the  feet  of  the  kin^.  They 
boldly  entered  the  lists  with  Patrick  Adamson,  archbishop  of  St. 
Andrews,  who  had  written  in  condemnation  of  the  conduct  of 
their  husbands,  and  answered  him  in  a long  paper,  exposing  with 
energy,  acuteness,  and  success,  the  falsehood  of  his  assertions 
and  the  imbecility  or  fallacy  of  his  reasonings  ; treating  him  at 
the  time  with  little  ceremony.  As  to  the  old  and  common  re- 
proach, they  say,  against  God’s  servants — troublers  of  common- 
v/ealths,  rebels  against  princes,  irreverent  speakers  against  those 
in  authority,  they  may  bear  with  it,  since  their  Master  was  simi- 
larly reproached,  yea,  was  even  accused  of  speaking  by  Beel- 
zebub, the  prince  of  the  devils.  “ We  will  say  but  this  much 
shortly,”  they  add,  “ as  Elias  said  to  Ahab,  ‘ It  is  thou  and  thy 
fathers  house  that  trouble  Israel.’  It  is  thou  and  the  remnant 
of  you,  Pharisaical  prelates,  because  ye  are  not  trained  up  in  the 
place  of  popes  that  would  mix  heaven  and  earth,  ere  the  pomp 
of  your  prelacies  decay.”*  The  power  of  this  defence  may  be 
estimated  from  the  irritation  which  it  caused  the  prelate,  and  from 
the  manner  in  which  he  met  it.  So  completely  had  the  weaker 
vessel”  pinned  him,  that  though  he  ‘‘  had  manie  grait  giftes,  bot 
specialie  excellit  in  the  toung  and  pen,”t  he  shrunk  from  encoun- 
tering these  spirited  females  with  their  own  weapons,  and,  skulk- 
ing behind  the  throne,  directed  against  them  the  thunderbolt  of  a 
royal  proclamation,  which  charged  them  instantly,  under  pain  of 
rebellion,  to  leave  their  manses.  This  they  accordingly  did, 
selling  their  household  furniture,  and  delivering  the  keys  of  their 
manses  to  the  magistrates.  By  the  same  proclamation,  several 
other  ladies  of  respectability,  who  are  described  as  worse  af- 
fected to  the  obedience  of  our  late  acts  of  parliament,”  are  com- 
manded, under  the  same  pains,  ‘‘  to  remove  from  the  capital,  and 
retire  beyond  the  water  of  Tay,  till  they  give  farther  declaration 
of  their  disposition.”! 

The  ardent  and  heroic  attachment  to  the  cause  of  presbytery 
displayed  by  Mrs.  Welsh,  the  wife  of  Mr.  John  Welsh,  minister 
of  Ayr,  and  the  wives  of  the  other  five  ministers,  who,  with  him, 
were  tried  at  Linlithgow,  in  1606,  on  a charge  of  high  treason, 
for  holding  a general  assembly  at  Aberdeen,  in  July  the  prece- 
ding year,  is  also  worthy  of  special  notice.  When  informed  that 
a verdict  of  guilty  was  brought  in  by  a corrupt  jury — a verdict 
which  inferred  the  penalty  of  death,  “ instead  of  lamenting  their 

^ Calderwood’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  127.  t James  Melville’s  Diary,  p.  293. 

$ M‘Crie  s Life  of  Melville,  vol.  i.,  p.  327. 


12 


INTRODUCTION  TO 


fate,  they  praised  God  who  had  given  their  husbands  courage  to 
stand  to  the  cause  of  their  master,  adding,  that  like  him,  they  had 
been  judged  and  condemned  under  covert  of  night.”*  Of  these 
ladies,  Mrs.  Welsh,  who  was  the  daughter  of  our  illustrious  re- 
former, John  Knox,t  is  best  known.  The  curious  interview 
which  took  place  between  her  and  King  James,  when  she  peti- 
tioned him  for  permission  to  her  husband  to  return  to  his  native 
country  for  the  benefit  of  his  health, J must  be  too  familiar  to  our 
readers  to  be  here  repeated. 

* M'Crie’s  Life  of  Knox,  vol.  ii.,  p.  271. 

t Her  name  was  Elizabeth.  She  was  his  third  and  youngest  daughter  by  his 
second  wife,  Margaret  Stewart,  daughter  of  Lord  Ochiltree,  a nobleman  of  amiable 
disposition,  and  his  steady  friend  under  all  circumstances.  A curious  anecdote 
connected  with  Knox’s  marriage  to  Lord  Ochiltree’s  daughter,  is  contained  in  a let- 
ter written  by  Mr.  Robert  Millar,  minister  of  Paisley,  to  Wodrow,  the  historian 
of  the  Sufferings  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  dated  November  15,  1722  : and,  as  it 
has  never  before  been  printed,  it  may  be  here  inserted  : “ Mr.  John  Campbell,  min- 
ister at  Craigie,”  says  Mr.  Millar,  told  me  this  story  of  Mr.  Knox’s  marriage,  so 
far  as  1 mind  it.  John  Knox,  before  the  light  of  the  Reformation  broke  up,  travelled 
among  several  honest  families  in  the  west  of  Scotland  who  were  converts  to  the 
protestant  religion  ; particularly  he  visited  oft  Stewart,  Lord  Ochiltree’s  family, 
preaching  the  gospel  privately  to  those  who  were  willing  to  receive  it.  The  lady 
and  some  of  the  family  were  converts  ; her  ladyship  had  a chamber,  table,  stool,  and 
candlestick,  for  the  prophet,  and  one  night  about  supper,  says  to  him,  ‘ Mr.  Knox,  I 
think  you  are  at  a loss  by  want  of  a wife  to  which  he  said,  ‘ Madam.  I think  no- 
body will  take  such  a wanderer  as  I ;’  to  which  she  replied,  ‘ Sir,  if  that  be  your 
objection,  I’ll  make  inquiry  to  find  an  answer  ’gainst  our  next  meeting.’  The  lady 
accordingly  addressed  herself  to  her  eldest  daughter,  telling  her  she  might  be  very 
happy  if  she  could  marry  Mr.  Knox,  who  would  be  a great  reformer  and  a credit  to 
the  church  ; but  she  despised  the  proposal,  hoping  her  ladyship  wished  her  better 
than  to  maiTy  a poor  wanderer.  The  lady  addressed  herself  to  her  second  daugh- 
ter, who  answered  as  the  eldest.  Then  the  lady  spoke  to  her  third  daughter,  about 
nineteen  years  of  age,  who  very  frankly  said,  ‘ Madam,  I ’ll  be  very  willing  to  mar- 
ry him,  but  I fear  he  will  not  take  me ;’  to  which  the  lady  replied,  ‘ If  that  be  all 
your  objection.  Til  soon  get  you  an  answer.’  Next  night,  at  supper,  the  lady  said 
to  Mr.  Knox,  ‘ Sir,  I have  been  considering  upon  a wife  to  you,  and  find  one  very 
willing.*  To  which  Knox  said,-*  Who  is  it,  madam  V She  answered,  ‘ My  jmung 
daughter  sitting  by  you  at  table.’  Then,  addressing  himself  to  the  young  lady,  he 
said,  ‘ My  bird,  are  you  willing  feo*marry  me  V She  answered,  ‘ Yes,  sir,  only  I fear 
you  '11  not  be  willing  to  take  me.’  He  said,  ‘ My  bird,  if  you  be  willing  to  take  me, 
you  must  take  your  venture  of  God’s  providence,  as  I do.  I go  through  the  coun- 
try sometimes  on  my  foot,  with  a wallet  on  my  arm,  a shjrt,  a clean  band,  and  a bi- 
ble  in  it ; you  may  put  some  things  in  it  for  yourself,  an  J if  I bid  jmu  take  the  wal- 
let, you  must  do  it,  and  go  where  I go,  and  lodge  where  I lodge.’ — ‘ Sir,’  says  she, 
‘I’ll  do  all  this.’ — 'Will  you  be  as  good  as  your  word?’ — ‘Yes,  I will.’  Upon 
which,  the  marriage  was  concluded,  and  she  lived  happily  with  him,  and  had  seve- 
ral children  by  him.  She  went  with  him  to  Geneva,  and  as  he  was  ascending  a hill, 
as  there  are  many  near  that  place,  she  got  up  to  the  top  of  it, before  him,  and  took  the 
wallet  on  her  arm,  and,  sitting  down,  said,  ‘ Now,  goodman,  am  not  I as  good  as  my 
word?’  She  afterward  lived  with  him  when  he  was  minister  at  Edinburgh.  I 
am  told,”  adds  Mr.  Millar,  “ that  one  of  that  Lady  Ochiltree's  daughters,  a sister  of 
John  Knoxes  wife,  was  married  to  Thomas  Millar,  of  Temple,  one  of  my  predeces- 
sor.?.”— Letters  to  Wodrow,  vol.  xix.,  4to.,  No.  197. 

f W elsh  and  the  other  ministers  had  been  banished  the  king’s  dominions  for 
life. 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


13 


Among  the  ladies  of  rank  who,  in  the  reign  of  James  VL, 
were  distinguished  for  their  piety  and  devotedness  to  the  liber- 
ties of  the  church,  were  Lady  Lilias  Graham,  countess  of  Wig- 
ton,  to  whom  Mr.  John  Welsh,  who  intimately  knew  her,  wrote 
that  famous  letter  from  Blackness  castle,  which  has  been  repeat- 
edly printed  and  often  admired  ;*  Lady  Anne  Livingstone,  coun- 
tess of  Eglington,  who,  although  bred  at  court,  yet  proved  a sub- 
dued and  eminent  Christian,  and  an  encourager  of  piety  and 
truth  ;”t  Lady  Margaret  Livingstone,  countess  of  Wigton,  the 
friend  and  patron  of  Mr.  John  Livingstone,  and  whom,  together 
with  the  two  preceding,  he  classes  among*  “ the  professors  in  the 
church  of  Scotland  of  his  acquaintance,  who  were  eminent  for 
grace  and  gifts  and,  omitting  many  others.  Lady  Margaret  Cun- 
ningham (sister  to  the  marchioness  of  Hamilton),  who  was  mar- 
ried, first  to  Sir  James  Hamilton  of  Evandale,  secondly  to  Sir 
James  Maxwell  of  Calderwood ; a lady,  whom  Robert  Boyd,  in 
recording  her  death,  which  took  place  about  September,  1623, 
describes  as  that  virtuous  lady,  equal,  if  not  beyond  any  I have 
known  in  Scotland,”  “ a woman  of  an  excellent  spirit,  and  many 
crosses  through  her  whole  life,”  ‘‘  diligent  and  active,  and  a fear- 
er of  God.”J 

In  the  reign  of  Charles  I,  a public-spirited  interest  in  the  cause 
of  religious  and  ecclesiastical  freedom  prevailed  still  more  among 
women  of  all  classes  in  our  country.  Those  in  the  humbler  ranks 
became  famous  for  their  resolute  opposition  to  the  reading  of  the 
“ black  service-book,”  which  was  to  be  read  for  the  first  time  by 
the  dean  of  Edinburgh,  in  the  old  church  of  St.  Giles,  on  Sabbath, 
July  23,  1637.  To  witness  the  scene,  an  immense  crowd  of 
people  had  assembled,  and  among  the  audience  were  the  lord- 
chancellor,  the  lords  of  the  privy  council,  the  judges  and  bishops. 
At  the  stated  hour,  the  dean  ascended  the  reading-desk,  arrayed 
in  his  surplice,  and  opened  the  service-book.  But  no  sooner 
did  he  begin  to  read,  than  the  utmost  confusion  and  uproar  pre- 
vailed. The  indignation  of  the  people  was  roused  ; “ false  anti- 
Christian,”  “ wolf,”  “ beastly-bellied  god,”  “ crafty  fox,”  “ ill- 
hanged  thief,”  were  some  of  the  emphatic  appellations  whicl 
came  pouring  in  upon  him  from  a hundred  tongues,  and  which  told 
him  that  he  occupied  a perilous  position.  But  the  person  whose 
fervent  zeal  was  most  conspicuous  on  that  occasion,  was  an  hum- 
ble female  who  kept  a cabbage-stall  at  the  Tron  Kirk,  and  who 

* Select  Biographies,  printed  for  the  Wodrow  Society,  vol.  i.,  p.  18. 

t Ibid.,  vol.  i.,  p 347. 

t Wodrow’s  Life  of  Boyd,  printed  for  the  Maitland  Club,  p.  266. 

2 


14 


INTRODUCTION  TO 


was  silting  near  the  reading-desk.  Greatly  excited  at  the  dean’s 
presumption,  this  female,  whose  name  was  Janet  Geddes — a name 
familiar  in  Scotland  as  a household  word,  exclaimed,  at  the  top 
of  her  voice,  “ Villain,  dost  thou  say  mass  at  my  lug  ?”  and  suiting 
the  action  to  the  word,  launched  the  cutty-stool  on  which  she  had 
been  sitting  at  his  head,  “ intending,”  as  a contemporary  writer  re- 
marks, “ to  have  given  him  a ticket  of  remembrance,  but  jouking  be- 
came his  safeguard  at  that  time.”*  The  same  writer  adds  : ‘‘  The 
church  was  immediately  emptied  of  the  most  part  of  the  congre- 
gation, and  the  doors  thereof  barred  at  the  commandment  of  the 
secular  power.  A good  Christian  woman,  much  desirous  to  remove, 
perceiving  she  could  get  no  passage-patent,  betook  herself  to  her 
bible  in  a remote  corner  of  the  church.  As  she  was  there  stop- 
ping her  ears  at  the  voice  of  the  popish  charmers,  whom  she  re- 
marked to  be  very  headstrong  in  the  public  practice  of  their  anti- 
Christian  rudiments,  a young  man  sitting  behind  her  began  to 
sound  forth,  ‘ Amen.’  At  the  hearing  thereof  she  quickly  turned 
her  about ; and,  after  she  had  warmed  both  his  cheeks  with  the 
weight  of  her  hands,  she  thus  shot  against  him  the  thunderbolt 
of  her  zeal : ‘ False  thief,’  said  she,  ‘ is  there  no  other  part  of  the 
kirk  to  sing  mass  in,  but  thou  must  sing  it  at  my  lug  V The 
young  man  being  dashed  with  such  a hot,  unexpected  rencounter, 
gave  place  to  silence  in  sign  of  his  recantation.  I can  not  here 
omit  a worthy  reproof  given  at  the  same  time  by  a truly  religious 
matron ; for,  when  she  perceived  one  of  Ishmael’s  mocking 
daughters  to  deride  her  for  her  fervent  expressions  in  behalf  of 
her  heavenly  Master,  she  thus  sharply  rebuked  her  with  an  ele- 
vated voice,  saying,  ‘Wo  be  to  those  that  laugh  when  Zion 
mourns.’  ”t 

At  that  period,  the  gentler  sex  were  particularly  unceremonious 
toward  turn-coat  or  time-serving  ministers.  Baillie  gives  a very 
graphic  account  of  the  treatment  Mr.  William  Annan,  the  pre- 
latic  minister  of  Ayr,  met  with  from  the  women  of  Glasgow  : 
“ At  the  outgoing  of  the  church,  about  thirty  or  forty  of  our  hon- 

* “ The  immortal  Janet  Geddes,”  as  she  is  styled  in  a pamphet  of  the  period 
(Edinburgh’s  Joy,  &c.,  1661),  survived  long  after  her  heroic  onslaught  on  the  dean 
of  Edinburgh.  She  kept  a cabbage-stall  at  the  Tron  Kirk,  as  late  as  1661.  She  is 
specially  mentioned  in  the  Mercurius  Caledonius,  a newspaper  published  imme- 
diately after  the  Restoration,  as  having  taken  a prominent  share  in  the  rejoicings 
on  the  coronation  of  Charles  II.,  in  1661.  See  Wilson’s  Memorials  of  Edinburgh  in 
vol.  i.,  pp.  92,  93,  and  vol.  ii.,  p.  30. 

t ‘‘  Brief  and  True  Relation  of  the  Broil  which  fell  out  on  the  Lord’s  day,  the  23d 
of  July,  1637,  through  the  Occasion  of  a black,  popish,  and  superstitious  Service- 
Book,  which  was  then  illegally  introduced  and  impudently  vented  within  the 
Churches  of  Edinburgh  published  August  thereafter.  Printed  in  Rotlie’s  Rela- 
tion, &;c.,  Appendix,  pp.  198,  199. 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


15 


estest  women,  in  one  voyce,  before  the  bishope  and  magistrate, 
did  fall  in  rayling,  cursing,  scolding,  with  clamours,  on  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Annan;  some  two  of  the  meanest  were  taken  to  the  Tol- 
booth.  All  the  day  over,  up  and  down  the  streets  where  he  went, 
he  got  threats  of  sundry  in  words  and  looks  ; but  after  supper, 
when  needlesslie  he  will  goe  to  visit  the  bishope,  he  is  no  sooner 
on  the  causey,  at  nine  o’clock  on  a week  night,  with  three  or  four 
ministers  with  him,  but  some  hundreds  of  inraged  women  of  all 
qualities  are  about  him,  with  neaves,  and  staves,  and  peats,  but 
no  stones ; they  beat  him  sore  ; his  cloak,  ruff,  hatt,  were  rent ; 
however,  upon  his  cries,  and  candles  set  out  from  many  windows, 
he  escaped  all  bloody  wounds  ; yet  he  was  in  great  danger  even 
of  kilUngy* 

In  this,  and  in  some  other  instances,  the  indignation  of  the 
‘‘honest  women”  of  those  days  at  renegade  or  persecuting  cler- 
gymen, may  have  carried  them  somewhat  beyond  the  bounds  of 
moderation.  On  other  occasions,  acting  more  decorously,  they 
assembled  peaceably  together  to  petition  the  government  for  lib- 
erty to  the  nonconforming  ministers  to  preach  wherever  they 
were  called  or  had  opportunity.!  And,  though  precluded  from 
bearing  a part  in  public  debates,  they  contemplated  with  the 
deepest  interest  those  ecclesiastical  movements,  which,  guided 
by  men  of  great  talents,  firmne'^s,  and  spirit,  issued  in  the  glo- 
rious triumph  of  the  church  over  the  attempts  of  the  court  to  en- 
slave her.  Nor  was  this  interest  limited  to  women  in  the  hum- 
bler and  middle  classes  of  society.  The  baronesses,  the  coun- 
tesses, the  marchionesses,  and  the  duchesses,  of  the  day  partook 
of  it,  and  encouraged  their  husbands  and  their  sons  to  stand  by 
the  church  in  her  struggles  for  freedom,  regardless  of  the  frowns 
and  the  threats  of  power.  The  zeal  with  which  the  marchioness 
of  Hamilton,  Lady  Boyd,  and  Lady  Ctilross,  maintained  the  good 
cause,  appears  from  the  brief  notices  of  their  lives  which  have 
been  transmitted  to  our  time,  and  to  these  might  be  added  the 
names  of  other  ladies  in  high  life,  many  of  whom  would  doubt- 
less have  gladly  subscribed  the  national  covenant  of  1638,  had  it 
been  the  practice  for  ladies  to  subscribe  that  document.^ 

* Baillie’s  Letters  and  Journals,  vol.  i.,  p.  21.  t See  p.  185. 

t Many  of  the  subscribed  copies  of  the  national  covenant,  as  sworn  at  that  period, 
have  been  carefully  examined  by  David  Laing-.  Esq.,  Signet  Library;  and,  from  the 
absence  of  the  names  of  ladies,  it  appears  not  to  have  been  customary  for  ladies  to 
swear  and  subscribe  it.  In  describing  some  of  the  numerous  copies  of  that  cove- 
nant, signed  in  different  parts  of  the  country  in  1638,  he,  however,  took  notice,  some 
time  ago,  in  a communication  to  the  Society  of  Antiquaries,  of  one  in  the  society’s 
museum,  which  seems  to  be  quite  peculiar  in  having  the  names  of  several  ladies. 
From  the  notarial  attestations  on  the  back  of  a great  many  persons,  in  the  parish  of 


16 


INTRODUCTION  TO 


In  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  the  fidelity  of  the  presbyterians 
was  put  to  a more  severe  test  than  it  had  ever  been  before, 
Charles  became  a ruthless  persecutor.  Inclining  at  one  time,  in 
matters  of  religion,  to  popery,  and  at  another  to  Hobbism,  it  was 
natural  for  him  to  persecute.  Popery,  the  true  antichrist,  which 
puts  enmity  in  the  seed  of  the  serpent  against  the  seed  of  the 
woman,  is  essentially  persecuting.  Hobbism,  which  maintains 
that  virtue  and  vice  are  created  by  the  will  of  the  civil  magis- 
trate, and  that  the  king’s  conscience  is  the  standard  for  all  the 
consciences  of  his  subjects,  just  as  the  great  clock  rules  all  the 
lesser  clocks  of  the  town,  is  no  less  essentially  persecuting. 
Whether,  then,  Charles  is  considered  as  a papist  or  a Hobbist, 
he  was  prompted  by  his  creed  to  persecute.  In  addition  to  this, 
it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  presbyterian  church  of  Scotland  had 
excited  his  irreconcilable  hatred,  not  only  from  its  being  un- 
friendly to  despotism,  but  from  its  strict  discipline,  the  experi- 
ence of  which  in  early  life  had  made  a lasting  impression  on  his 
mind.  All  these  things  being  considered,  the  motives  inducing 
his  determination,  a determination  from  which  he  never  swerved, 
to  destroy  the  Scottish  presbyterian  church,  are  easily  explained. 
To  assist  him  in  this  work,  a set  of  men,  both  statesmen  and 
churchmen , pre-eminently  unprincipled,  of  whom  Middleton,  Lau- 
derdale, and  Sharp,  may  be  considered  as  the  representatives, 
were  at  his  service.  Many  of  these  had  sworn  the  ‘‘  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant,”  and  had  been  zealous  for  it  in  the  palmy 
days  when  its  champions  walked  in  silver  slippers.  But  they 
were  too  worldly-wise  to  strive  against  wind  and  tide.  They 
were,  in  fact,  just  such  men  as  Bunyan  describes  in  his  “ Pil- 
grim’s Progress,”  my  Lord  Turn-about,  my  Lord  Time-server, 
Mr.  Facing-both-ways,  Mr.  Anything,  Mr.  Two-tongues,  Mr. 
Hold-the-world,  Mr.  Money-love,  and  Mr.  Save-all.  Such  ser- 
vile agents,  it  is  evident,  were  in  no  respect  actuated,  in  persecu- 
ting the  presbyterians,  by  motives  of  conscience,  as  some  perse- 

Maybole,  who  adhered  to  the  covenant,  but  were  unable  to  write,  he  inferred  that 
this  copy  had  been  signed  in  that  district  of  Ayrshire.  In  the  first  line  of  the  sig- 
natures toward  the  right-hand  side,  along  with  the  names  of  Montrose,  Lothian, 
Loudoun,  and  Cassillis,  are  those  of  Jeane  Hamilton,  evidently  the  sister  of  the 
marquis  of  Hamilton,  and  wife  of  the  earl  of  Cassillis — and  of  Margaret  Kennedy, 
their  daughter,  who  afterward  became  the  wife  of  Bishop  Burnet.  Lower  down, 
toward  the  right  hand  of  the  parchment,  are  the  names  of  other  ladies,  who  can  not 
now  be  so  readily  identified — Margaret  Stewart,  Jeane  Stew^art,  Grizil  Blair,  Isa- 
bill  Gimil,  Helene  Kennedy,  Elizabeth  Hew^att,  Anna  Stewart,  Elizabeth  Stewart, 
Dame  Helene  Bennett,  and  Janet  Fergusone.  For  the  information  contained  in  this 
note  I am  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Laing,  whose  extensive  acquaintance 
with  Scottish  history  is  so  much  at  the  service  of  others. 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


17 


cutors  have  been,  but  solely  by  corrupted  and  interested  views. 
Had  the  king  changed  his  religion  every  half  year,  they  would 
have  changed  theirs,  and  have  been  equally  zealous  in  persecu- 
ting all  who  refused  to  make  a similar  change. 

But  this  fiery  ordeal,  the  faith,  the  devotedness,  and  the  hero- 
ism, of  the  pious  women  of  Scotland  stood.  We  find  them,  in 
every  station  of  life,  maintaining  their  fidelity  to  their  conscien- 
tious convictions  in  the  midst  of  severe  sufferings.  With  the 
ejected  ministers  they  deeply  sympathized ; and  their  sympathy 
with  them  they  testified  in  many  ways  ; nor  did  they  feel,  or  show 
much  respect  to,  the  intruded  curates.  This  was  true  even  as  to 
the  more  ignorant  of  women  in  the  lower  ranks.  Many  of  this 
class  signalized  themselves  by  their  opposition  to  the  intrusion 
of  the  curates,  as  in  Iron  gray,  where  a body  of  them  boldly  as- 
sailed a party  of  the  king’s  guard,  who  came  to  that  parish  with 
the  view  of  promoting  the  intrusion  of  a curate  into  the  place  of 
their  favorite  ejected  minister,  Mr.  John  Welsh.  “ A party  with 
some  messengers,”  says  Mr.  John  Blackadder,  “ was  sent  with  a 
curate,  to  intimate  that  another  curate  was  to  enter  the  kirk  for 
their  ordinary.  Some  women  of  the  parish  hearing  thereof  be- 
fore, placed  themselves  in  the  kirkyard,  and  furnished  themselves 
with  their  ordinary  weapons  of  stones,  whereof  they  gathered 
store,  and  thus,  when  the  messengers  and  party  of  rascals  with 
swords  and  pistols  came,  the  women  so  maintained  their  ground, 
defending  themselves  under  the  kirk  dike,  that,  after  a hot  skir- 
mish, the  curate,  messengers,  and  party  without,  not  presuming 
to  enter,  did  at  length  take  themselves  to  retreat,  with  the  honor- 
able blae  marks  they  had  got  at  that  conflict.”*  Nor  was  this  by 
any  means  a singular  case,  for  the  same  writer  adds  : “ Many 
such  affronts  did  these  prelates’  curates  meet  with  in  their  essays 
to  enter  kirks  after  that  manner,  especially  by  women,  which  was 
a testimony  of  general  dislike  and  aversion  to  submit  to  them  as 
their  ministers.”  In  a similar  way  does  Kirkton  speak.  After 
stating  that  “ the  first  transgressors  of  this  kind  were  (as  I re- 
member) the  poor  people  of  Irongray,”  and  that  “ the  next  offend- 
ers were  in  Kirkcudbright,  where  some  ten  women  were  first  in- 
carcerate in  Edinburgh,  and  thereafter  set  with  papers  on  their 
heads,”  he  goes  on  to  say : “ But  these  were  followed  by,  I be- 
lieve, a hundred  congregations  up  and  down  the  country,  though 
the  punishment  became  banishment  to  America,  cruel  whipping, 
and  heavy  fines.”  He,  however,  at  the  same  time  adds  : “ These 
extravagant  practices  of  the  rabble  were  no  way  approven  by  the 
* Blackadder’s  Memoirs,  MS.  copy  in  Advocates’  Library. 

2* 


18 


INTRODUCTION  TO 


godly  and  judicious  presbyterians  ; yea,  they  were  ordinarily  the 
actions  of  the  profane  and  ignorant ; but  I think  they  were  enough 
to  demonstrate  to  the  world  what  respect  or  affection  the  curates 
should  find  among  their  congregations.”* 

This  favorable  disposition  to  the  suffering  cause  was  not,  how- 
ever, limited  to  ignorant  women  in  the  lower  ranks.  It  was  par- 
taken of  more  largely,  and  displayed  more  intelligently,  by  the 
great  body  of  well-informed  women,  in  the  lower  and  middle  ranks, 
and  even  by  many  of  them  in  the  higher,  to  some  of  whom  the 
reader  is  introduced  in  this  volume.  At  field-meetings  they  were 
often  present.  “ Not  many  gentlemen  of  estates,”  says  Kirkton, 
“ durst  come,  but  many  ladies,  gentlewomen,  and  commons,  came 
in  great  multitudes.”!  The  agents  appointed  by  the  government 
throughout  the  country,  for  putting  in  execution  tho  laws  for  sup- 
pressing conventicles  and  other  “ ecclesiastical  disorders,”  had 
upon  all  occasions  represented  to  the  privy  council  that  women 
were  “ the  chief  fomenters  of  these  disorders.”^  Besides  sup- 
porting the  persecuted  cause  of  presbytery  themselves,  these 
ladies,  by  their  intelligent  piety  and  firmness  of  mind,  had  a pow- 
erful influence  in  infusing  the  principles  of  noncomfority  into 
their  husbands,  and  in  sustaining  on  many  occasions  their  waver- 
ing resolution.  Archbishop  Sharp  complained  heavily  of  this, 
and  it  gave  peculiar  energy  and  bitterness  to  his  hatred  of  pres- 
byterian  women,  whom  he  was  in  the  habit  of  branding  with  ev- 
ery term  of  opprobrium  and  contempt.  In  a letter  to  a lady,  who 
acquired  notoriety  in  her  day  by  the  vigorous  suppression  of  con- 
venticles, and  of  whom  we  shall  afterward  speak  more  particu- 
larly, 1|  he  says : “I  am  glad  to  find  your  husband,  a gentleman 
noted  for  his  loyalty  to  the  king,  and  affection  to  the  church,  is  so 
happy  as  to  have  a consort  of  the  same  principles  and  inclina- 
tions for  the  public  settlement,  who  has  given  proof  of  her  aver- 
sion to  join  in  society  with  separatists,  and  partaking  of  that  sin, 
to  which  so  many  of  that  sex  do  tempt  their  husbands  in  this  evil 
time,  when  schism,  sedition,  and  rebellion,  are  gloried  in,  though 
Christianity  does  condemn  them  as  the  greatest  crimes. ”§ 

* Kirkton's  History,  pp.  162,  163. 

t Ibid.,  pp.  352,  353.  “A  vast  multitude,”  says  the  editor  of  Kirkton,  ”of  the  fe- 
male sex  in  Scotland,  headed  by  women  of  high  rank,  such  as  the  duchess  of  Ham- 
ilton, Ladies  Rothes,  Wigton,  Loudon,  Colvill,  &c.,  privately  encouraged  or  openly 
followed  the  field  preachers.” 

X Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council,  January  23,  1684. 

i|  This  was  Anne  Keith,  a daughter  of  Keith  of  Benholm  (brother  to  Earl  Mari- 
schall),  and,  by  the  courtesy  of  the  time,  styled  Lady  Methven,  her  husband  being 
Patrick  Smith  of  Methven.  Sharp’s  letter  to  her  is  dated  St.  Andrews,  March  27, 1679. 

J Kirkton’s  History,  pp.  355-361. 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


19 


The  unyielding  steadfastness  displayed  by  so  many  of  the  wo- 
men of  Scotland  in  the  cause  of  nonconformity  was  a perplexing 
case  to  the  government.  Imprisonment  they  saw  would  not  rem- 
edy the  evil,  for  they  could  not  find  prisons  to  hold  a tithe  of 
those  who  were  guilty.  The  method  they  adopted  in  making 
the  husband  responsible  for  the  religious  sentiments  of  his  wife, 
and  in  punishing  him,  though  a conformist  himself,  for  her  non- 
formity,  if  not  more  effectual,  proved,  as  may  easily  be  conceived, 
a prolific  source  of  domestic  contention  and  misery.  “ Many  hus- 
bands here,”  says  a writer  of  that  period,  in  relating  the  sufferings 
of  Galloway  and  Nithsdale  in  1666,  who  yield  to  the  full  length, 
are  punished  by  fining,  cess,  and  quarter,  for  their  wives’  non- 
obedience, and  ye  know,  sir,  that  it  is  hard.  There  are  many  wives 
who  will  not  be  commanded  by  their  husbands  in  lesser  things 
than  this ; but  I must  tell  you  this  hath  occasioned  much  conten- 
tion, fire,  and  strife,  in  families,  and  brought  it  to  this  height,  that 
some  wives  are  forced  to  flee  from  their  husbands,  and  forced  to 
seek  a shelter  elsewhere,  and  so  the  poor  good  man  is  doubly 
punished  for  all  his  conformity.”*  Another  writer  of  that  period 
also  says  : “ When  these  delating  courtsf  came  through  the  coun- 
try, husbands  were  engaged  to  bring  their  wives  to  the  courts, 
and  to  the  kirk,  or  to  put  them  away,  and  never  to  own  them 
again,  which  many  of  them  did.  So  after  the  women  had  wan- 
dered abroad,  and  when  they  came  home  again,  their  husbands 
and  other  relations  took  them  by  force  to  the  kirk.  Some  of 
them  fell  a sound  when  they  were  taken  off  the  horses’  backs ; 
others  of  them  gave  a testimony  that  enraged  the  curate. ”J  Find- 
ing, after  the  persecution  had  continued  for  more  than  twenty 
years,  that  the  zeal  of  the  ladies  against  prelacy  was  by  no  means 
abated,  and  that  the  methods  hitherto  adopted  in  meeting  the  evil 
had  proved  singularly  unsuccessful,  the  government  came  to  the 
resolution  of  meeting  it  by  severely  fining  the  husbands  of  such 
ladies  as  withdrew  from  their  parish  churches.  Such  a punish- 
ment, they  imagined,  was  better  calculated  than  any  other  to 
strike  terror,  and  to  make  husbands  active  in  their  endeavors  to 
persuade  their  Avives  to  attend  the  church.  Many  husbands  were 
thus  fined  in  heavy  sums  for  their  wives’  irregularities.  The 
case  of  Sir  William  Scot,  of  Harden,  was  very  severe.  His  wife, 

^ Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxvii.,  4to,  No.  6. 

t These  were  circuit  courts,  held  in  various  parts  of  the  countiy,  for  discoveidng 
and  punishing  nonconformists. 

t An  account  of  the  sufferings  in  Tunnergirth  and  other  parishes  in  Annan,  Wod- 
row MSS.,  vol.  xxxvii.,  4to,  No.  14. 


20 


INTRODUCTION  TO 


Christian  Boyd,  sixth  daughter  of  Lady  Boyd,  who  is  noticed  in 
this  volume,  having  declined  to  attend  the  curate,  Sir  William 
was  on  that  account  fined  by  the  privy  council  in  November, 
1683,  in  the  sum  of  fifteen  hundred  pounds  sterling,*  and  long 
imprisoned  in  the  castle  of  Edinburgh.  He  was  forced  to  com- 
promise and  pay  the  fine,  which  in  those  days  was  an  enormous 
sum.  He  desired  the  privy  council  to  relieve  him  of  responsi- 
bility for  his  wife’s  delinquencies  in  future,  as  she  would  on  no 
consideration  engage  to  hear  the  curates.  But  the  council  held 
that  husbands  were  to  be  accounted  masters  of  their  wives  de  jure, 
whatever  might  be  the  case  de  facto.  Lady  Scot  was  under  the 
necessity  of  leaving  her  husband,  and  she  retired  into  England, 
and  died  at  Newcastle.! 

But  the  making  husbands  responsible  for  the  conformity  of  their 
wives,  and  thus  throwing  a bone  of  contention  into  families,  was 
only  a small  part  of  the  sufferings  endured  by  many  nonconform- 
ing women  of  that  period,  on  account  of  their  principles.  The 
sufferings  of  a few  and  only  a few  of  them  are  recorded  in  this 
volume.  None  of  our  female  worthies  were  indeed  subjected  to 
the  torture  of  the  boot  or  of  the  thumbscrew,  though  some  of  them 
were  threatened  with  the  former  punishment.^  But  they  were 
cruelly  tortured  in  other  ways.  In  the  parish  of  Auchinleck,  a 
young  woman,  for  refusing  the  oath  of  abjuration,  had  her  finger 
burned  with  fire-matches  till  the  white  bone  appeared.  In  the 
same  parish.  Major  White’s  soldiers  took  a young  woman  in  a 
house,  and  put  a fiery  coal  into  the  palm  of  her  hand,  to  make 
her  tell  what  was  asked  her.||  Hundreds  of  women  were  fined 
in  large  sums  of  money.  Hundreds  of  them  were  imprisoned. 
Hundreds  of  them  were  banished  to  his  majesty’s  plantations,  and 
discharged  from  ever  returning  to  this  kingdom,  under  the  pain 
of  death,  to  be  inflicted  on  them  without  mercy  ; and  before  being 
shipped  off,  they  were  in  many  cases  burned  on  the  cheek,  by 

* Fountainh all’s  Decisions,  vol.  i.,  p.  243. 

t W odrow  MSS.,  vol.  xL,  folio,  No.  3. 

t Mrs.  Crawford,  Mrs.  Kello,  a rich  widow,  and  Mrs.  Duncan,  a minister’s  widow, 
were  so  threatened.  After  Mr.  Mitchell’s  attempt  on  the  life  of  Archbishop  Sharp, 
they  were  imprisoned,  under  suspicion  of  knowing  who  the  intended  assassin  was; 
and,  on  being  brought  before  the  council,  and  strictly  interrogated  concerning  houses 
that  lodged  whigs  or  kept  conventicles,  or  if  they  knew  the  name  of  the  assassin, 
they  were,  on  refusing  to  answ’er,  threatened  with  the  boot;  and  the  last  of  these 
ladies  would  one  day  have  actually  endured  the  torture,  had  it  not  been  for  the  duke 
of  Rothes,  who  told  the  council  that  it  was  not  proper  for  gentlewomen  to  wear 
boots. — Kirkton’s  History,  pp.  283,284.  Dalziel  also  threatened  Marion  Harvey 
with  the  boot. 

II  Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxxvii.,  4to,  No.  1.  This  paper  was  communicated  to 
Wodrow  by  Mr.  Alexander  Shields. 


^ THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


SI 


the  hands  of  the  hangman,  with  a red-hot  iron ; while  some  of 
them,  being  too  old  to  banish,  after  lying  in  prison  till  their  per- 
secutors were  weary  of  confining  them,  and  grudged  the  expense 
of  supporting  them,  were  whipped,  burned  on  the  cheek,  and  dis- 
missed.* Hundreds  of  them,  to  escape  imprisonment,  banish- 
ment, and  other  hardships,  were  under  the  necessity  of  leav- 
ing their  houses  in  the  cold  winter  season,  and  of  lodging  in 
rocks  and  caves,  amid  frost  and  snow.  And  not  to  mention  those 
women  who  were  put  to  cruel  deaths,  hundreds  more,  even  when 
the  hostility  of  the  government  was  not  directed  against  them- 
selves personally,  were  greatly  tried,  from  the  sufferings  to  which 
their  husbands,  from  their  opposition  to  or  noncompliance  with 
the  oppressive  measures  of  the  government,  were  subjected.  In 
how  many  instances,  while  the  husband  was  compelled  to  flee 
for  safety,  did  the  wife  suffer  the  execrable  barbarity  of  savage 
troopers,  who,  visiting  her  house,  would  abuse  and  threaten  her 
in  the  very  spirit  and  language  of  hell ; seize  upon  her  corn  and 
meal,  and  throw  them  into  the  dunghill,  or  otherwise  destroy 
them  ; plunder  her  of  her  poultry,  butter,  cheese,  and  bedclothes  ; 
shoot  or  carry  away  her  sheep  and  cattle,  reducing  her  and  her 
family  to  great  distress  ! If  the  husband  was  fined,  intercom- 
muned,  imprisoned,  tortured,  banished,  forfeited  in  life  and  prop- 
erty, or  put  to  death,  the  wife  suffered ; and  who  can  calculate 
the  mental  agony  and  temporal  privations  which  many  a wife 
with  her  children  then  experienced,  in  consequence  of  the  injus- 
tice and  cruelty  perpetrated  upon  her  husband  ? Such  were  the 
sufferings  endured  for  conscience’  sake  during  that  dark  period, 
by  thousands  of  the  tender  sex  in  our  unhappy  country. 

Never,  indeed,  did  a severer  period  of  trial  pass  over  the  church 
of  Scotland,  than  during  the  persecution.  Previously  she  had 
fought,  with  various  success,  many  a battle  against  kings  and 
statesmen.  But  even  when  she  had  sustained  defeat,  she  again 
mustered  her  forces,  and  by  persevering  effort  recovered  the 
ground  she  had  lost.  During  the  persecution  it  was  different. 
It  was  all  disaster.  She  was  not  indeed  destroyed,  which  was 
what  her  enemies  aimed  at.  But  she  was  laid  prostrate,  a bleed- 
ing and  a helpless  victim.  All  she  could  do  was  to  exercise 
constancy,  patience,  and  fortitude,  under  thb  fury  of  her  enemies. 
Had  the  period  of  suffering  been  of  short  duration,  these  graces 
it  would  have  been  easier  to  exercise.  But  it  lasted  for  nearly  a 
whole  generation.  It  was  “ The  Twenty-eight  Years’  Conflict,” 
and  a conflict  of  a very  different  sort  from  “ The  Ten  Years’  Con- 

Registry  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council,  July  14,  1685. 


22 


INTRODUCTION  TO 


flict”  of  our  own  day.  The  latter  was  running  with  the  footmen 
in  the  land  of  peace ; the  former  was  contending  with  horses  in 
the  swelling  of  Jordan. 

' It  is  extremely  gratifying  to  find  that  our  countrywomen,  who 
submitted  to  such  sufferings  in  the  cause  of  presbytery,  were  gen- 
erally distinguished  for  sincere  and  enlightened  piety.  Apart  from 
this,  knowledge,  zeal,  courage,  and  self-sacrifice,  even  to  the 
death,  are  of  little  estimation  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  of  little  ad- 
vantage to  the  possessor.  “ Though  I give  my  body  to  be  burned, 
and  have  not  charity  (love),  it  profiteth  me  nothing.”  But  .this 
charity,  this  love  in  its  most  extensive  sense,  embracing  both  God 
and  man,  was  the  predominating  element  in  the  character  of  those 
of  whom  we  now  speak.  Their  piety  was  indeed  the  true  rea- 
son, and  not  obstinacy  or  fanaticism,  as  their  enemies  calumni- 
ously  afiirmed,  why  they  submitted  to  suffer  what  they  did  for 
matters  of  religion.  The  fear  of  God,  and  respect  to  his  authority, 
were  their  governing  principles ; and  so  long  as  these  principles 
held  the  sway  in  their  understandings,  cc^nsciences,  and  hearts,  they 
could  not,  at  the  bidding  of  any  man,  renounce  what  they  believed 
to  be  the  truth  of  God,  and  profess  as  truth  what  they  believed 
to  be  a lie,  whatever  it  might  cost  them.  Nor  were  the  persecu- 
tors ignorant  of  the  fact  that  the  sufferers  were  generally  distin- 
guished for  godliness.  They  knew  it  well,  it  resembling  in  dis- 
positionThe  first  murderer  Cain,  who  was  of  the  wicked  one,  and 
slew  his  brother  because  his  own  works  were  evil  and  his  broth- 
er’s righteous,  it  was  chiefly  this  which  prompted  them  to  hate 
and  murder  their  inoftensive  victims.  So  well  did  they  know  it, 
that  they  regarded  irreligion  or  profanity  as  sufficient  to  clear  a 
man  or  woman  of  all  suspicion  of  the  taint  of  presbyterianism. 
As  a proof  of  this,  we  may  quote  the  following  passage  from  Kirk- 
ton’s  history,  in  reference  to  what  took  place  in  the  parish  of 
Wistoun,  in  Clydesdale  : The  church,”  says  he,  “ being  vacant, 
and  a curate  to  enter,  the  people  rose  in  a tumult,  and  with  stones 
and  batons  chased  the  curate  and  his  company  out  of  the  field.  A 
lady  in  that  parish  was  blamed  as  a ringleader  in  the  tumult,  and 
brought  before  the  council ; she  came  to  the  bar,  and  after  her 
libel  was  read,  the  chancellor  asked  if  these  accnsations  Avere 
true  or  not.  She  answered  briefly,  ‘ The  devil  one  word  was 
true  in  them.’  The  councillors  looked  one  upon  another ; and 
the  chancellor  replied,  ‘Well,  madam,  I adjourn  you  for  fifteen 
days’ — which  never  yet  had  an  end,  and  there  her  persecution 
ended : such  virtue  there  was  in  a short  curse,  fully  to  satisfy 
such  governors  ; and  many  thought  it  good  policy  to  demonstrate 


. THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


23 


themselves  to  be  honest  profane  people,  that  they  might  vindi- 
cate themselves  of  the  dangerous  suspicion  of  being  presbyte- 
rians.”* 

In  our  sketches  we  have  included  several  ladies,  who,  though 
not  sufferers  during  the  persecution,  either  in  their  own  persons 
or  in  their  friends,  sympathized  with  and  relieved  the  sufferers. 
Nor  was  it  only  from  such  ladies  as  the  duchess  of  Hamilton,  the 
duchess*  of  Rothes,  and  others  who  favored  the  persecuted  prin- 
ciples, that  the  evil-entreated  covenanters  met  with  sympathy 
and. relief,  but  even  from  many  ladies  who,  though  not  attached 
to  the  presbyterian  cause  themselves,  were  enemies  to  intolerance 
and  persecution.  Many  of  the  wanderers  could  bear  the  same 
testimony  to  the  generosity  and  humanity  of  woman,  which  is 
borne  by  a celebrated  traveller  if  “To  a woman,”  says  he,  “I 
never  addressed  myself,  in  the  language  of  decency  and  friend- 
ship, without  receiving  a decent  and  friendly  answer.  If  I was 
hungry  or  thirsty,  wet  or  sick,  they  did  not  hesitate,  like  men,  to 
perform  a generous  action.  In  so  free  and  kind  a manner  did 
they  contribute  to  my  relief,  that,  if  I was  dry,  I drank  the  sweet- 
est draught ; and  if  hungry,  I ate  the  coarsest  morsel  with  a 
double  relish.”  Of  this,  so  numerous  were  the  examples  that 
were  constantly  occurring  during  the  persecution,  as  to  corrobo- 
rate the  evidence  upon  which  the  poetj  pronounces  compassion 
as  peculiarly  characteristic  of  the  female  heart : — 

“ Wherever  grief  and  want  retreat, 

In  woman  they  compassion  find ; 

She  makes  the  female  breast  her  seat, 

And  dictates  mercy  to  the  mind.” 

But  true  as  this  eulogium  on  the  female  character  may  be  in 
the  main,  instances  are  to  be  met  with  in  which  even  the  heart 
of  woman  has.  become  steeled  against  every  humane  feeling ; and 
such  instances,  though  happily  of  rare  occurrence,  were  to  be 
met  with  during  the  period  of  the  persecution.  The  countess  of 
Perth  was  one  of  these  instances.  Her  treatment  of  the  wife  of 
Alexander  Hume,  portioner  of  Hume,  in  the  close  of  the  year 
1682,  was  revoltingly  atrocious.  Mr.  Hume  was  a nonconform- 
ist ; and,  though  nothing  criminal  was  proved  against  him,  he 
was  condemned  to  die  at  the  market-cross  of  Edinburgh  upon  the 
29th  of  December.  He  was  offered  his  life  if  he  would  take  the 
test,  which  he  refused  to  do.  By  the  interest  of  his  friends  at 
court,  a remission  was,  however,  procured  from  the  king,  which 


Kirkton’s  History,  pp  354,  355, 


t Mr.  Ledyard. 


t Crabbe. 


24 


INTRODUCTION  TO 


came  down  to  Edinburgh  four  or  five  days  before  his  execution ; 
but  it  was  kept  up  by  the  earl  of  Perth,  a relentless  persecutor, 
who  was  then  chancellor.  On  the  day  of  Hume’s  execution,  his 
wife  went  to  the  chancellor’s  lady,  and  begged  her,  in  such 
moving  terms  as  might  have  softened  even  a cold  and  hard  heart, 
to  interpose  for  her  husband’s  life,  urging  that  she  had  five  small 
children.  But  the  heart  of  the  countess  was  harder  than  the 
nether  millstone.  She  had  no  more  feeling  for  the  afflicted  wife 
and  her  children  than  if  they  had  been  so  many  brute  beasts. 
Not  only  did  she  refuse  to  comply  with  her  prayer,  but  with  in- 
fernal cruelty,  barbed  and  venomed  the  refusal  with  language  so 
coarsely  savage  as  is  hardly  to  be  repeated.  Her  answer  was, 

I have  no  more  regard  to  you  than  to  a bitch  and  five  whelps  !”* 

Lady  Methven,  formerly  referred  to,  is  another  instance.  To 
put  down  a large  field  conventicle  on  her  husband’s  ground,  she 
boldly  marched  forth,  armed  with  a gun  and  sword,  at  the  head 
of  her  vassals,  swearing  by  the  God  of  heaven  that  she  would 
sooner  sacrifice  her  life  than  allow  the  rebellious  whigs  to  hold 
their  rebellious  meeting  on  his  ground.  But  this  intrepid  energy, 
for  which  the  enemies  of  the  covenanters  have  held  her  up  as  a 
heroine,  was  nothing  more  than  animal  courage,  the  mere  effect 
of  iron  nerves.  From  her  letters,  it  is  evident,  if  we  are  to  judge 
from  the  oaths  with  which  they  are  interlarded,  that  she  was  a 
profane,  godless  woman  ; and  it  is  no  less  evident  from  them  that 
inveterate  malignity  to  the  covenanters  was  her  impelling  princi- 
ple. In  a letter  to  her  husband,  then  at  London  with  the  marquis 
of  Montrose,  dated  Methven  V/ood,  October  15,  1678,  she  thus 
describes  her  exploits  : — 

“ My  Precious  Love  : A multitude  of  men  and  women,  from 
east,  west,  and  south,  came  the  13th  day  of  this  October  to  hold  a 
field  conventicle,  two  bows’-draught  above  our  church ; they  had 
their  tent  set  up  before  the  sun  upon  your  ground.  I seeing  them 
flocking  to  it,  sent  through  your  ground,  and  charged  them  to  re- 
pair to  your  brother  David,  the  bailie,  and  me,  to  the  Castle  hill, 
where  we  had  but  sixty  armed  men  : your  brother  with  drawn 
sword  and  bent  pistol,  I with  the  light  horseman’s  piece  bent,  on 
my  left  arm,  and  a drawn  tuck  in  my  right  hand,  all  your  ser- 
vants well  armed,  marched  forward,  and  kept  the  one  half  of 
them  fronting  with  the  other,  that  were  guarding  their  minister 
and  their  tent,  which  is  their  standard.  That  near  party  that  we 
yoked  with,  most  of  them  were  St.  Johnston’sf  people  ; many  of 

* Her  answer  is  not  recorded  in  Wodrow’s  History  (vol.  iii.,  p.  -ll?),  but  it  is  given 
in  his  MSS.,  vol.  x^xvii.,  4to,  No.  31  t Perth. 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


25 


them  had  no  will  to  be  known,  but  rode  off  to  see  what  we  would 
do.  They  marched  toward  Busbie  : we  marched  be-west  them 
and  gained  ground,  before  they  could  gather  in  a body.  They 
sent  off  a party  of  an  hundred  men  to  see  what  we  meant,  to  hin- 
der them  to  meet.  We  told  them,  if  they  would  not  go  from  the 
parish  of  Methven  presently,  it  should  be  a bluddie  day ; for  I 
protested,  and  your  brother,  before  God,  we  would  ware  our  lives 
upon  them  before  they  should  preach  in  our  regallitie  or  parish. 
They  said  they  would  preach.  We  charged  them  either  to  fight 
or  fly.  They  drew  to  a council  amongst  themselves  what  to  do  : 
at  last,  about  two  hours  in  the  afternoon,  they  would  go  away  if 
w^e  would  let  the  body  that  was  above  the  church,  with  the  tent, 
march  freely  after  them ; we  were  content,  knowing  they  were 
ten  times  as  many  as  we  were,  and  our  advantage  was  keeping 
the  one  half  a mile  from  the  other,  by  marching  in  order  betwixt 
them.  They  seeing  we  were  desperate,  marched  our  the  Pow, 
and  so  we  went  to  the  church,  and  heard  a feared  minister  preach. 
They  have  sworn  not  to  stand  with  such  an  affront,  but  resolve 
to  come  the  next  Lord’s  day  ; and  I,  in  the  Lord’s  strength,  intend 
to  accost  them  with  all  that  will  come  to  assist  us.  1 have  caused 
your  officer  warn  a solemn  court  of  vassals,  tenants,  and  all  within 
our  power,  to  meet  on  Thursday,  where  I intend,  if  God  will,  to 
be  present,  and  there  to  order  them,  in  God  and  our  king’s  name, 
to  convene  well  armed  to  the  kirkyard  on  sabbath  morning  by 
eight  hours,  where  your  brother  and  I,  with  all  our  servant-men, 
and  others  we  can  make,  shall  march  to  them,  and,  if  the  God  of 
heaven  will,  they  shall  either  fight  or  go  out  of  our  parish."^ .... 
My  blessed  love,  comfort  yourself  in  this,  that,  if  the  fanatics 
should  chance  to  kill  me,  it  shall  not  be  for  naught.  I was 
wounded  for  our  gracious  king,  and  now,  in  the  strength  of  the 
Lord  God  of  heaven,  I ’ll  hazard  my  person  with  the  men  I may 
command,  before  these  rebels  rest  where  ye  have  power.  Sore 
I miss  you,  but  now  more  than  ever This  is  the  first  oppo- 

sition that  they  have  rencountered,  so  as  to  force  them  to  flee  out 
of  a parish.  God  grant  it  be  good  hansell ! There  would  be 
no  fear  of  it  if  we  were  all  steel  to  the  back.  My  precious,  I 
am  so  transported  with  zeal  to  beat  the  whigs,  that  I almost  for- 
got to  tell  you  my  lord  marquis  of  Montrose  hath  two  virtuous 
ladies  to  his  sisters,  and  it  is  one  of  the  loveliest  sights  in  all 
Scotland,  their  nunnery.” 

This  letter  is  dated  “ Methven  Wood,  the  15th  instant,  1678.”t 

^ In  another  letter  to  her  husband,  she  says : “ They  are  an  ignorant,  wicked 
pack ; the  Lord  God  clear  the  nation  of  them !"  t Kirkton's  Hist.,  pp.  355-361. 

3 


26 


INTRODUCTION. 


About  a year  after  this,  Lady  Methven  met  with  a melancholy 
death.  She  fell  off  her  horse,  and  her  brains  were  dashed  out, 
upon  the  very  spot  where  she  opposed  persons  going  to  that 
meeting,  namely,  at  the  southwest  end  of  Methven  Wood.* 

Of  a very  different  character  were  the  ladies  whose  memoirs 
we  have  attempted.  So  far  from  hating,  maligning,  and  adding 
to  the  hardships  of  the  persecuted,  they  protected  and  relieved 
them,  and  in  many  cases  shared  in  their  sufferings.  They  were 
indeed  distinguished  by  general  excellence  of  character,  and  are 
entitled  to  both  the  grateful  remembrance  and  imitation  of  pos- 
terity. They  form  a part  of  the  great  cloud  of  witnesses  with 
which  we  are  encompassed.  Though  belonging  to  past  genera- 
tions, whose  bodies  are  now  sleeping  in  the  dust,  and  whose 
spirits  have  gone  to  the  eternal  world,  they  yet  speak.  By  their 
piety  toward  God,  not  less  than  their  benevolence  toward  man ; 
by  the  exemplary  part  they  acted  in  every  relation  of  life — as 
daughters,  as  sisters,  as  mothers  ; by  their  liberality  in  supporting 
the  ordinances  of  the  gospel,  and  in  encouraging  its  faithful  min- 
isters ; by  the  magnanimity  with  which  they  suffered  either  per- 
sonally or  relatively  in  the  cause  of  truth,  often  rivalling  the  most 
noble  examples  of  Christian  heroism  to  be  found  in  the  church’s 
history — they  become  instructors  to  the  living  generation  in  pas- 
sing through  this  scene  of  temptation  and  trial.  They  have  es- 
pecially, by  the  magnanimity  with  which  they  suffered  in  the 
cause  of  truth,  emphatically  taught  us  the  important  principle 
that  we  are  in  all  things  and  at  all  times  to  do  what  is  right ; and 
as  to  the  disapprobation,  opposition,  and  persecution  of  men,  in 
whatever  way  manifested,  or  to  whatever  extent,  we  are  to  let 
that  take  its  chance — a principle,  the  importance  of  which  it  is 
difficult  to  over-estimate  ; which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all  that 
is  great  and  good  in  character ; which  has  enabled  the  greatest 
and  the  best  of  men,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  to  achieve  the  great 
purposes  they  have  formed  for  advancing  the  highest  interests 
of  mankind,  and  upon  which  it  is  necessary  for  the  good  soldier 
of  Christ  to  act  in  every  age — in  an  age  in  which  the  church 
enjoys  tranquillity,  as  well  as  when  she  suffers  persecution. 

* Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxxiii.,  folio,  No.  143. 


THE 


LADIES  OE  THE  COVEIANT. 


LADY  ANNE  CUNNINGHAM, 

MARCHIONESS  OF  HAMILTON.^ 

Lady  Anne  Cunningham  was  the  fourth  daughter  of  James, 
seventh  earl  of  Glencairn,  by  his  first  wife  Margaret,  second 
daughter  of  Sir  Colin  Campbell  of  Glenurchy.*  Her  ancestors 
on  the  father’s  side  were  among  the  first  of  the  Scottish  peers 
who  embraced  the  reformed  doctrine.  In  1640,  her  great-great- 
grandfather William,  fourth  earl  of  Glencairn,  and  her  great- 
grandfather, then  Lord  Kilmaurs,  afterward  fifth  earl  of  Glencairn, 
appear  among  the  converts  of  the  reformed  faith.  Her  great- 
grandfather in  particular,  whose  piety  and  benevolence  procured 
him  the  honorable  appellation  of  ‘‘  the  good  earl,”t  was  an  ardent 
and  steady  promoter  of  the  Reformation,  for  which  he  was  emi- 
nently qualified  by  his  superior  learning  and  abilities,  as  well  as 
by  the  influence  of  his  high  station ; and  he  carefully  instructed 
his  children  in  its  principles.  He  regularly  attended  the  ser- 
mons of  John  Knox,  on  the  reformer’s  returning  to  Scotland,  in 
1554;  and  in  1556,  he  invited  him  to  administer  the  sacrament 
of  the  Lord’s  Supper  after  the  manner  of  the  reformed  church, 
in  his  baronial  mansion  of  Finlayston,  in  the  parish  of  Kilmal- 
colm, when  he  himself,  his  countess,  and  two  of  their  sons,  with 
a number  of  their  friends,  partook  of  that  solemn  ordinance. | 

* Douglas’s  Peerage  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.,  p.  636. 

t There  is  a portrait  of  this  nobleman  in  Pinkerton’s  Scottish  Gallery  of  Portraits, 
vol.  ii. 

t M'Crie’s  Life  of  Knox,  vol.  i.,  p.  178.  Knox’s  History,  Wodrow  Society  edi- 
tion, vol.  i.,  p.  250.  The  silver  cups  which  were  used  by  Knox  on  this  occasion 
are  still  carefully  preserved  ; and  the  use  of  them  was  given  at  the  time  of  dis- 
pensing the  sacrament  in  the  parish  church  of  Kilmalcolm,  so  long  as  the  Glen- 
cairn family  resided  at  Finlayston.” 


28 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


He  also  assisted  the  reformers  by  his  pen,  being  the  author  of  a 
satirical  poem  upon  the  Roman  catholic  monks,  entitled,  “ An 
Epistle  Direct  from  the  Holy  Hermit  of  Allarit*  to  his  Brethren 
the  Grey  Friars.’’  Nor  did  he  shrink  from  drawing  the  sword 
for  their  protection.  In  1559,  when  the  reformers  took  up  arms 
at  Perth  to  defend  themselves  from  the  queen-regent,  who  had 
collected  an  army  and  had  advanced  to  Perth,  to  avenge  the  de- 
struction of  the  popish  images  by  the  populace  of  that  town,  he 
raised  twelve  hundred  horse  and  thirteen  hundred  foot  in  the 
west,  and  the  passes  being  occupied,  conducted  them  through  the 
mountains,  travelling  night  and  day  till  they  reached  Perth;  which 
proved  a seasonable  aid  to  the  reformers,  and  by  the  consternation 
with  which  it  inspired  the  queen-regent,  prevented  the  effusion 
of  blood.  This  nobleman  often  visited  Knox  on  his  death-bed  ; 
and  he  died  in  1574. 

Lady  Anne’s  father,  James,  seventh  earl  of  Glencairn,  was 
also  a friend  to  the  liberties  and  religion  of  his  country.  He 
was  one  of  those  noblemen,  who,  when  the  duke  of  Lennox,  an 
emissary  of  the  court  of  France,  had  acquired  a complete  influ- 
ence over  James  VL,  soon  after  his  assuming  the  reins  of  gov- 
ernment, and  had  effected  an  entire  change  in  the  court,  filling  it 
with  persons  devoted  to  popery  and  arbitrary  power,  resolved  to 
take  possession  of  the  king’s  person,  and  removing  Lennox,  and 
another  favorite,  the  earl  of  Arran,  from  him,  to  take  upon  them- 
selves the  direction  of  public  affairs.  With  this  view,  on  meeting 
with  the  king  returning  from  hunting  in  Athol,  several  of  them 
invited  him  to  Ruthven  castle,  where  they  effected  their  purpose  ; 
and  hence  this  enterprise  was  called  the  Raid  of  Ruthven. 

Of  the  early  life  of  Lady  Anne  we  possess  no  information.  In 
the  beginning  of  the  year  1603,  she  was  married  to  Lord  James, 
the  son  and  heir-presumptive  of  John,  first  marquis  of  Hamilton. 
By  her  marriage  contract,  dated  30th  January,  1603,  which  re- 
ceived the  consent  of  both  their  fathers,  the  marriage  portion  is 
forty  thousand  merks,  and  the  yearly  jointure  fifty-six  chalders 
of  victual,  and  five  hundred  pounds  of  money-rent.f 

Lady  Hamilton  inherited  from  her  father’s  family  an  ardent 
zeal  for  presbytery.  During  the  first  part  of  her  life  an  almost 
continued  contest  existed  between  James  VL  and  the  church  of 
Scotland,  in  reference  to  that  form  of  church  government.  As 

* Thomas  Douchtie  of  Allarit  or  Loretto,  near  Musselburgh.  This  person  was 
the  founder  of  the  Chapel  of  our  Lady  of  Loretto,  1533.  Knox’s  History,  Wod- 
row  Society  edition,  vol.  i.,  pp.  72,  75. 

t Descriptive  Catalogue  of  the  Hamilton  Papers  in  the  Miscellany  of  the  Mait- 
land Club,  vol.  iv.,  p.  201. 


MARCHIONESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


29 


has  been  said  in  the  introduction,  James  commenced  that  strug- 
gle for  absolute  power,  which  was  resolutely  persevered  in  by  his 
son  and  his  two  grandsons  ; and  to  reach  his  purpose  he  deemed 
it  necessary  to  undermine  the  presbyterian  government  of  the 
church  of  Scotland.  With  his  usual  profanity,  he  asserted  that 
monarchy  and  presbytery  agreed  as  well  as  God  and  the  devil. 
No  assertion  could  be  more  unfounded.  It  can  not  indeed  be 
denied  that  the  republicanism  of  presbyterian  church  government 
is  unfriendly  to  absolute  or  despotic  monarchy.  The  fundamen- 
tal principle  of  presbytery — that  spiritual  power  is  lodged  exclu- 
sively in  the  church  courts,  uncontrolled  by  the  civil  magistrate 
— greatly  limits  the  power  of  monarchs,  saying  to  them  when 
they  reach  the  borders  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  “ Hitherto 
shalt  thou  come,  and  no  farther,”  and  naturally  leads  men  to  con- 
clude that,  by  parity  of  reason,  temporal  power  should  be  lodged 
in  a parliament.  But  that  presbytery  is  hostile  to  limited  mon- 
archy, is  disproved  by  the  whole  of  its  history  in  Scotland ; for 
no  body  of  people  was  ever  more  devoted  to  the  throne  than  the 
presbyterians  ; and  indeed  they  often  carried  their  loyalty  to  a 
reprehensible  and  extravagant  excess.  It  was  not,  however,  a 
limited  but  an  absolute  monarchy  on  the  erection  of  which  James’s 
heart  was  set ; and  seeing  clearly  enough  that  presbytery  was 
the  enemy  of  such  a monarchy,  he  made  every  effort  to  overthrow 
it,  and  to  introduce  prelacy,  which  he  well  knew  would  be  a 
more  effectual  instrument  in  advancing  his  design.  These  efforts 
he  was  not  permitted  to  make  without  opposition.  A body  of 
ministers,  respectable  for  number,  and  still  more  respectable  for 
their  talents,  piety,  and  zeal,  resolutely  and  perseveringly  resisted 
him  till  the  close  of  his  life.  They  maintained,  that  by  attempt- 
ing to  impose  upon  the  church  the  form  of  government  and  mode 
of  worship  which  were  most  accordant  with  his  inclinations,  and 
by  endeavoring  to  control  her  in  her  administration,  he  was  in- 
vading the  prerogative  of  Christ,  the  sole  king  and  head  of  the 
church,  who  alone  had  the  right  to  settle  the  form  of  her  govern- 
ment, and  by  whose  authority  alone  she  was  to  be  guided  in  her 
administration.  By  threats,  bribes,  imprisonment,  and  banish- 
ment, James  labored  hard  to  get  them  to  yield  to  his  wishes  ; but 
animated  by  a high  sense  of  duty,  they  were  not  to  be  overborne, 
and  largely  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  martyrs,  they  preferred 
enduring  the  utmost  effects  of  his  royal  wrath,  rather  than  make 
the  unhallowed  surrender.  So  much  importance  did  they  attach 
to  their  principles,  as  to  deem  them  worthy  even  of  the  sacrifice 
of  their  lives.  “We  have  been  even  waiting  with  joyfulness,” 

3"^ 


80 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


said  one  of  them,  “ to  give  the  last  testimony  of  our  blood  in  con- 
firmation thereof,  if  it  should  please  our  God  to  be  so  favorable  as 
to  honor  us  with  that  dignity.”*  It  is  the  courage,  zeal,  and  self- 
sacrifice,  with  which  this  party  contended  for  the  rights  and  lib- 
erties of  the  church,  during  the  reigns  of  James  VI.  and  Charles 
L,  that  imparts  to  this  portion  of  our  ecclesiastical  history  its  prin- 
cipal charm. 

To  this  party  the  marchioness  of  Hamilton  adhered  with  great 
zeal,  actuated  by  sympathy  with  the  principles  contended  for,  as 
well  as  by  sympathy  with  the  character  of  the  men  themselves, 
who,  besides  being  the  most  gifted,  were  the  most  pious,  active, 
and  faithful  ministers  of  the  church  of  Scotland,  in  their  day. 

Her  husband,  the  marquis  of  Hamilton,  was  not  equally  stead- 
fast with  herself  in  maintaining  the  liberties  of  the  church.  Fa- 
cile and  ambitious,  he  was  induced,  from  a desire  to  please  his 
sovereign,  to  become  an  advocate  for  conformity  to  the  five  arti- 
cles of  Perth,  and  to  exert  his  influence  to  obtain  their  ratifica- 
tion in  the  Scottish  parliament  of  1621,  where  he  was  his  majes- 
ty’s high  commissioner.  This  nobleman  was  cut  off  in  the  prime 
of  life,  having  died  at  London  on  the  2d  of  March,  1625,  in  the 
thirty-sixth  year  of  his  age.f  “ Small  regret,”  says  Calderwood, 
“ was  made  for  his  death,  for  the  service  he  made  at  the  last  par- 
liament.” 

The  marchioness  survived  the  marquis  many  years,  during 
which  time  she  was  eminently  useful  as  an  encourager  of  the 
faithful  ministers  of  the  gospel,  whom  she  was  ever  ready  to 
shield  from  persecution,  and  to  countenance  in  every  way  com- 
petent to  her.  When  Mr.  Robert  Boyd,  of  Trochrig,  had,  a few 
months  after  his  being  admitted  minister  of  Paisley,  been  driven 
out  of  that  town  by  the  mob,  who  showered  upon  him  “ stones 
and  dirt” — Paisley  being  then,  as  Row  describes  it,  “ a nest  of 
papists”! — earnestly  desirous  to  take  that  great  and  good 
man  under  her  protection,  and  invited  him  to  accept  of  the  charge 
of  the  parish  of  Cambuslang,  which  was  at  that  time  vacant.  Mr. 
James  Bruce,  writing  to  him  from  Glasgow,  in  October,  1626, 
says  : “ The  parish  of  Cambuslang  is  now  vacant,  and  the  lady 
marchioness  is  earnestly  desirous  to  have  you  there.  Her  joint- 

* These  are  the  words  of  Mr.  John  Welsh,  when  a prisoner  in  Blackness  castle, 
in  reference  to  himself  and  his  brethren  who  was  proceeded  against  by  the  govern- 
ment for  holding  a general  Assembly  at  Aberdeen  in  July,  1605,  in  opposition  to  the 
wishes  of  the  monarch.  Select  Biographies,  printed  for  the  Wodrow  Society,  vol. 
i.,  p.  23. 

t Calderwood’s  History,  vol.  vii.,  pp.  469,  489,  630. 

t Row’s  History  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  p.  438. 


MARCHIONESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


31 


lire  lies  there  : it  is  within  three  miles  of  Glasgow,  has  a reason- 
able stipend,  besides  the  lady’s  pension,  which  she  will  rather 
augment  than  diminish.  You  will  live  easier,  and  at  more  peace 
there,  than  at  Paisley  ; you  will  have  the  lady  marchioness’s  com- 
pany, which  is  very  desirable.  This  I leave  to  your  considera- 
tion, and  the  Lord’s  direction.”  An  end,  however,  was  put  to  this 
matter  by  the  growing  illness  of  Boyd,  which  took  him  to  Edin- 
burgh, to  consult  with  physicians  ; and  on  reaching  the  capital 
his  sickness  increased,  till  it  terminated  in  his  death,  on  the  5th 
of  January,  1627.* 

The  name  of  the  marchioness  stands  favorably  connected  with 
that  memorable  revival  of  religion  which  took  place  at  the  kirk 
of  Shotts,  on  the  21st  of  June,  1630,  the  Monday  after  the  cele- 
bration of  the  Lord’s  Supper.  Indeed,  that  revival  may  be  said 
to  be  directly  traceable  to  the  piety  of  this  lady,  who  was  forward 
to  embrace  every  opportunity  of  bringing  within  the  reach  of 
others  the  blessed  gospel  which  she  herself  so  highly  prized ; 
and  it  originated  in  a circumstance  apparently  incidental — the 
breaking  down  of  her  carriage  on  the  road,  at  Shotts.  How  im- 
portant the  results,  for  either  good  or  evil  to  mankind,  which,  un- 
der the  government  of  Infinite  Wisdom,  have  been  produced  by 
the  most  trivial  events ! The  sight  of  the  spider’s  web  and  the 
pigeon’s  nest  at  the  entrance  of  the  cave  in  which  Mohammed 
concealed  himself  diverted  his  pursuers  from  searching  it,  and, 
saving  the  life  of  the  false  prophet,  contributed  to  entail  for  ages 
upon  a large  part  of  the  world  the  curse  of  the  Mohammedan  su- 
perstition ; and  in  the  Reformation  throughout  Europe,  incidents 
equally  insignificant  have,  on  the  other  hand,  been  big  with  con- 
sequences the  most  beneficial  to  mankind.  The  circumstance 
of  the  breaking  down  of  the  marchioness’s  carriage,  seemingly 
casual  as  it  was,  resulted  in  some  hundreds  of  immortal  beings 
experiencing  that  blessed  change  of  heart  which  unites  the  soul 
to  God,  and  which  issues  in  everlasting  salvation.  The  particu- 
lars, in  so  far  as  she  was  concerned,  were  these  : As  the  road  to 
Edinburgh  from  the  west  lay  by  the  kirk  of  Shotts,  she  frequently 
passed  that  way  in  travelling  from  the  place  of  her  residence  to 
the  capital,  and  on  such  occasions  she  received,  in  different  in- 
stances, civilities  from  Mr.  Home,!  minister  of  the  parish.  At 
one  time,  in  particular,  when,  on  her  passing  through  Shotts,  ac- 
companied with  some  other  ladies,  the  carriage  in  which  they 

* Wodrow's  Life  of  Robert  Boyd,  pp.  239,  240. 

t Gillies,  ill  bis  Historical  Collections,  calls  him  Mr.  Hance,  but  this  is  a mistake. 
Both  Livingstone  and  Wodrow  give  his  name  as  in  the  text. 


33 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


were  riding  broke  down,  in  tlie  neighborhood  of  the  manse.  Mr. 
Home,  on  learning  the  accident,  kindly  invited  them  to  alight 
and  remain  all  night  in  his  house,  as  they  were  at  a considerable 
distance  from  any  convenient  place  of  entertainment.  Having 
accepted  his  invitation,  they  observed  during  their  stay  that,  be- 
sides its  inconvenient  situation,  the  manse  stood  much  in  need  of 
being  repaired  ; and  the  marchioness,  in  return  for  his  attentions, 
erected  for  him  a new  manse,  in  a more  agreeable  situation,  and 
with  superior  accommodations.  On  receiving  so  substantial  a 
favor,  Mr.  Home  waited  upon  her  to  express  his  obligations,  and 
desired  to  know  if  there  was  anything  he  could  do  by  which  to 
testify  his  gratitude.  All  she  asked  was  that  he  would  be  kind 
enough  to  allow  her  to  name  the  ministers  he  should  have  with 
him  as  his  assistants  at  the  celebration  of  the  . Lord’s  Supper. 
This  request  he  cordially  granted.  She  accordingly  named  some 
of  the  most  distinguished  ministers  of  the  day,  Mr.  Robert  Bruce, 
Mr.  David  Dickson,  and  some  others,  who  had  been  remarkably 
successful  as  instruments  in  bringing  many  to  the  saving  knowl- 
edge of  the  truth.  The  report  that  such  celebrated  men  were  to 
assist  at  the  communion  at  that  place  soon  circulated  extensively 
through  the  country  ; and  a vast  multitude,  attracted  by  their  fame, 
assembled  from  all  quarters,  many  of  them  of  eminent  piety,  among 
whom  were  the  marchioness  herself,  and  other  ladies  of  rank, 
who  attended  at  her  invitation.* 

The  solemnity  to  which  she  was  the  means  of  bringing  these 
ministers,  and  of  gathering  together  so  great  a crowd  of  people, 
was  accompanied  in  a very  signal  manner  with  the  Divine  bles- 
sing. For  several  days  before,  much  time  was  spent  in  social 
prayer.  During  all  the  days  of  the  solemn  occasion  the  minis- 
ters were  remarkably  assisted.  The  devout  who  attended  were 
in  a more  than  ordinary  degree  refreshed  and  edified ; and  so 
largely  was  the  spirit  of  grace  and  supplication  poured  out  upon 
them,  that,  after  being  dismissed  on  the  sabbath,  they  spent  the 
whole  night,  in  different  companies,  in  prayer.  On  the  Monday 
morning,  the  ministers,  understanding  how  they  had  been  en- 
gaged, and  perceiving  them,  instead  of  returning  to  their  homes, 
still  lingering  at  the  place,  as  if  unwilling  to  depart  from  a spot 
which  they  had  found  in  their  experience  to  be  as  it  were  the 
gate  of  heaven,  agreed  to  have  sermon  on  that  day,  though  it  was 
not  usual,  at  that  time,  to  preach  on  the  Monday  after  the  dispen- 
sation of  the  Lord’s  Supper.  The  minister  whose  turn  it  was  to 

* Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  i.,  p.  271 ; Gillies’s  Historical  Collections,  vol.  i.,  pp. 
309,  3]0. 


MARCHIONESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


33 


officiate  having  become  unwell,  the  work  of  addressing  the  peo- 
ple was,  at  the  suggestion  of  Lady  Culross,  laid  upon  Mr.  John 
Livingstone,  then  a young  man,  and  chaplain  to  the  countess  of 
Wigton.  Livingstone  had  before  preached  at  Shotts,  and  had 
found  more  liberty  in  preaching  there  than  at  other  places  ; but 
from  the  great  multitude  of  all  ranks  assembled  on  that  occasion, 
he  becamB  so  diffident  that,  when  alone  in  the  fields  in  the  morn- 
ing, he  began  to  think  of  stealing  away  rather  than  address  the 
people.  “ But,”  says  he,  “ I durst  not  so  far  distrust  God,  and  so 
went  to  sermon  and  got  good  assistance.  I had  about  an  hour 
and  a half  upon  the  points  I had  meditated  on,  Ezekiel  xxxvi. 
25, 26  : ‘ Then  will  I sprinkle  clean  water  upon  you,  and  ye  shall 
be  clean : from  all  your  filthiness,  and  from  all  your  idols,  will  I 
cleanse  you.  A new  heart  also  will  I give  you,  and  a new  spirit 
will  I put  within  you ; and  I will  take  away  the  stony  heart  out 
of  your  flesh,  and  I will  give  you  a heart  of  flesh and  in  end, 
offering  to  close  with  some  words  of  exhortation,  I was  led  on 
about  an  hour’s  time  in  a strain  of  exhortation  and  warning  with 
such  liberty  and  melting  of  heart  as  I never  had  the  like  in  pub- 
lic in  all  my  life.”*  And  such  was  the  effect,  that,  as  Mr.  Flem- 
ing observes,  in  his  “Fulfilling  of  the  Scriptures,”  “near  five 
hundred  had  at  that  time  a discernible  change  wrought  on  them, 
of  whom  most  proved  lively  Christians  afterward.  It  was  the 
sowing  of  a seed  through  Clydesdale,  so  as  many  of  the  most 
eminent  Christians  in  that  country  could  date  either  their  conver- 
sion or  some  remarkable  confirmation  in  their  case  from  that 
day.”t  After  this  the  practice  of  preaching  on  the  Monday  fol- 
lowing the  sacrament  became  general. 

* Life  of  Mr.  John  Livingstone,  in  Select  Biographies,  printed  for  the  Wodrow 
Society,  vol.  i.,  p.  138. 

t It  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  quote  some  notices  respecting  this  communion, 
given  by  Wodrow: — 

"‘April  24,  1710.  This  day  being  at  the  Shotts,  and  discoursing  with  Mr.  Law, 
the  minister,  he  tells  me  that  the  sermon  was  in  the  west  end  of  the  churchyard. 
He  let  me  see  the  end  of  the  Graigs  to  which,  it  is  said,  Mr.  Livingstone  went  up  to 
study,  the  morning  before  he  preached,  as  the  tradition  is.  Another  should  have 
preached  on  the  Monday,  but  he  fell  indisposed.  It  was  the  lady  Culross,  who  was 
there,  and  had  special  intimacy  with  Mr.  Livingstone,  that  put  the  ministers  upon 
employing  him.  The  minister’s  name,  at  that  time,  was  Mr.  Home,  a man  of  an 
easy  temper,  and  no  persecutor.’’  And,  after  stating  that  the  marchioness  of  Hamil- 
ton had  conferred  some  particular  favor  on  Mr.  Home;  that  Mr.  Home  allowed  her 
to  name  the  ministers  he  should  have  with  him  at  the  communion  (Mr.  Dickson,  Mr. 
Bruce,  and  others),  who  all  came,  with  a great  many  Christians,  at  the  lady’s  invita- 
tion, who  was  herself  an  excellent  woman — Wodrow  adds  that  “ he  (Mr.  Law)  hears 
the  particular  occasion  of  the  first  sensible  motion  among  the  people  was  this : In 
the  time  of  Mr.  Livingstone’s  sermon  there  was  a soft  shower  of  rain,  and  when  the 
people  began  to  stickle  about,  he  said  to  this  purpose,  ‘ What  a mercy  is  it  that  the 
Lord  sifts  that  rain  through  these  heavens  on  us,  and  does  not  rain  down  fire  and 


34 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT, 


The  marchioness  of  Hamilton  was  personally  known  to  Mr. 
John  Livingstone  ; and  in  his Memorable  Characteristics’’ he 
has  given  her  a place  among  some  of  the  professors  in  the 
church  of  Scotland  of  his  acquaintance  who  were  eminent  for 
grace  and  gifts.”*  From  his  “ Life”  we  also  learn  that  whatever 
influence  she  had  with  the  court  at  London,  she  was  well  inclined 
to  use  it  for  the  protection  of  the  persecuted  nonconformists.  He 
informs  us  that,  after  he  himself,  Mr.  Robert  Blair,  and  others  of 
his  brethren  in  Ireland,  had  been  deposed,  in  May,  1632,  by  the 
bishop  of  Down,  and  when  Mr.  Blair  went  to  London  to  repre- 
sent their  cause  to  the  government,  he  himself,  who  was  to  follow 
Mr.  Blair,  went  previously  to  Scotland,  with  the  design  of  procu- 
ring letters  from  the  lady  marchioness  of  Hamilton  and  other  per- 
sons of  rank,  to  some  of  their  friends  at  court,  vindicating  him 
and  his  brethren  from  the  charge  of  stirring  up  the  people  to  ecsta- 
sies and  enthusiasm,  and  requesting  for  them  toleration  to  preach 
the  gospel  notwithstanding  their  nonconformity.f 

During  the  stirring  period  when  the  Scottish  people  renewed 
the  national  covenant,  and  successfully  resisted  the  attempts  of 
Charles  I.  to  impose  upon  them  a book  of  canons  and  a liturgy 
the  marchioness  warmly  espoused  the  cause  of  the  covenant. 

brimstone,  as  he  did  upon  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  !'  He  further  adds  : “ This  night 
Mr.  George  Barclay  tells  me  that  he  discoursed  Mr.  Livingstone  himself  in  Holland 
upon  this  communion,  and  he  told  him  that  he  was  such  a stranger  to  all  the  minis- 
ters there,  that  the  lady  Culross  was  the  person  that  put  the  ministers  upon  him,  the 
minister  that  should  have  preached  having  fallen  sick;  that  it  was  somewhat  that 
incidentally  he  spoke  that  gave  occasion  to  the  motion  among  the  people,  and  Mr. 
Barclay  repeated  the  words  above;  and  Mr.  Livingstone  added:  ‘ Brother,  when 
you  are  strongly  pressed  to  say  anything  you  have  not  premeditated,  do  not  offer  to 
stop  it — you  know  not  what  God  has  to  do  with  it.' " — Analecta,  vol.  i.,  p.  271. 

There  is  one  point  in  these  two  accounts  as  to  which  there  seems  to  be  some  dis- 
crepancy. According  to  Mr.  Law,  Messrs.  Dickson  and  Bruce  were  among  the 
ministers  present ; and,  according  to  Mr.  Barclay,  Livingstone  was  ‘‘  a stranger  to 
all  the  ministers  there.”  But  Livingstone,  before  he  was  licensed  to  preach,  knew 
at  least  Mr.  Bruce,  who,  as  he  informs  us  in  his  Life,  had  been  in  the  habit  of  assist- 
ing his  father  at  Lanark  at  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 

* Select  Biographies  printed  for  the  Wodrow  Society,  vol.  i.,  p.  348. 

t Ibid.,  vol.  i.,  p.  146. 

t The  book  of  canons  received  the  royal  sanction  and  became  law  in  1635.  The 
service-book,  or  liturgy,  w^as  enjoined  to  be  used  by  act  of  privy  council,  20th  of 
December,  1636,  and  the  act  was  the  following  day  proclaimed  at  the  Cross  of  Edin- 
burgh ; but  the  liturgy  itself  was  not  published  till  toward  the  end  of  May,  1637. 
These  two  books  were  extremely  unpopular  in  Scotland,  both  because  they  were 
forced  upon  the  church  solely  by  royal  authority,  without  the  consent  of  the  chufch 
herself,  or  without  her  having  been  even  consulted,  and  because  of  the  matter  con- 
tained in  them.  The  book  of  canons,  among  other  things  objected  to,  asserted  the 
king's  supremacy  in  all  causes,  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  civil ; enjoined  various  un- 
warranted and  superstitious  rites  in  the  observance  of  baptism  and  the  Lord’s  Sup- 
per ; proscribed  sessions  and  presbyteries ; and  invested  the  bishops  with  uncontrol- 
lable power.  The  service-book  was  just  the  English  liturgy  with  numerous  altera- 
tions, by  which  it  approached  nearer  the  Roman  missaL 


MARCHIONESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


35 


Possessed  of  a strong  and  masculine  spirit,  she  displayed  an  un- 
daunted heroism  in  the  cause,  which  neither  the  sight  of  personal 
danger  nor  the  partiality  of  maternal  affection  could  subdue. 
When  her  son  James,  marquis,  afterward  duke  of  Hamilton,  who 
sided  with  Charles  I.  against  the  covenanters,  conducted  an  Eng- 
lish fleet  to  the  Forth,  in  1639,  to  overawe  them,  she  appeared 
on  horseback,  with  two  pistols  by  her  side,  at  the  head  of  a troop 
of  horse,  among  the  intrepid  thousands  who  lined  the  shores  of 
Leith  on  that  occasion,  to  resist  his  landing ; and,  drawing  one 
of  her  pistols  from  her  saddle-bow,  declared  she  would  be  the 
first  to  shoot  him  should  he  presume  to  land  and  attack  the  troops 
of  the  covenant.*  It  is  said  that  she  had  even  loaded  her  pistols 
with  balls  of  gold  ; but  this  rests  on  very  doubtful  authority.!  It 
is  certain,  however,  that  when  the  marquis  cast  anchor  in  the 
Forth,  near  Leith,  loitering  for  the  king,  whose  army  was  march- 
ing into  Scotland  to  his  assistance,  she  paid  him  a visit  on  board 
his  vessel.  The  particulars  of  this  interview  have  not  been  re- 
corded ; but  the  people  anticipated  from  it  the  most  favorable 
results.  ‘‘  The  son  of  such  a mother,”  they  said,  “ will  do  us 
no  harm.”!  they  suffer  any  harm.  The  spirited  con- 

duct and  intercession  of  his  mother,  it  is  supposed,  was  one  cause 
which  prevented  the  marquis’s  debarkation  of  his  troops.  Other 
causes,  however,  seem  to  have  contributed  to  this.  The  number 
of  his  troops,  which  amounted  only  to  about  three  or  four  thou- 
sand, was  too  small  for  the  occasion.  Besides,  hearing  that  a 
part  of  the  English  army,  being  encountered  by  the  Scots  at 
Kelso,  were  defeated,  with  a loss  of  three  hundred  men,  and  put 
to  flight,  he  was  not  in  a disposition  to  engage  with  the  cove- 
nanters, who  gave  such  decided  proofs  of  earnestness  ; and  soon 
after  a pacification  was  concluded  between  them  and  the  king,  at 
the  Birks  of  Berwick. 

Respecting  this  lady,  we  meet  with  no  additional  facts,  except 
that  her  last  will  is  dated  the  4th  of  November,  1644,  and  that 
she  died  in  1647.|| 

It  may  be  added  that  there  is  a portrait  of  the  marchioness  in 
Pinkerton’s  “ Scottish  Gallery  of  Portraits,”  vol.  ii.  “ The  por- 

* Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  i.,  p.  704. 

t ‘‘  The  stoiy  about  the  ‘ balls  of  gold,’  rests  on  the  authority  of  Gordon  of  Stra 
loch’s  MSS.  (none  of  the  purest,  to  be  sure) ; but  the  manly  heroism  of  the  old  mar- 
chioness is  noticed  by  Spang,  Hist.  Motuum^  p,  357.” — M'Crie’s  Sketches  of  Scottish 
Church  History,  2d  edition,  p.  255. 

t Whitelock’s  Memorials,  p.  29.  Whitelock  terms  her  “ a rigid  covenanter.” 

II  Descriptive  Catalogue  of  the  Hamilton  Papers  in  the  Miscellany  of  the  Maitland 
Club,  vol.  iv.,  p.  207 ; Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  i.,  p.  704. 


36 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


trait,”  says  Pinkerton,  “ corresponds  with  the  masculine  charac- 
ter of  the  marchioness.”  He  adds  : “ Johnson,  the  ingenious 
limner,  died  before  he  had  finished  the  drapery  of  this  drawing, 
which  is  from  a painting  by  Jameson,  at  Taymouth.” 


LADY  BOYD. 

Lady  Boyd,  whose  maiden  name  was  Christian  Hamilton, 
was  the  only  child  of  Sir  Thomas  Hamilton  of  Priestfield,  after- 
ward first  earl  of  Haddington,  by  his  first  wife  Margaret,  daughter 
of  James  Borthwick  of  Newbyres.  Her  father,  who  studied  law 
in  France,  was,  on  his  returning  to  Scotland,  admitted  advocate, 
on  the  1st  of  November,  1587  ; and,  soon  distinguishing  himself 
at  the  bar  by  his  talents  and  learning,  he  was,  on  the  2d  of  No- 
vember, 1592,  appointed  a lord  of  session,  by  the  title  of  Lord 
Drumcairn.  In  February,  1596,  he  became  king’s  advocate  ; and 
in  May,  1612,  lord  clerk  register  of  Scotland.  He  was  next 
invested  with  the  offices  of  secretary  of  state  and  president  of  the 
court  of  session,  which  he  retained  till  the  5th  of  February,  1626, 
when  he  was  constituted  keeper  of  the  privy  seal ; and  on  the 
27th  of  August,  1627,  he  was  created  earl  of  Haddington.  He 
died  on  the  29th  of  May,  1637,  injthe  seventy-fourth  year  of  his 
age.  By  means  of  the  lucrative  offices  he  held,  he  acquired  one 
of  the  largest  fortunes  of  his  time.* 

The  subject  of  this  notice  was  first  married  to  Robert,  ninth 
Lord  Lindsay  of  Byres,  who  died  at  Bath,  on  9th  of  July,  1616. 
To  him  she  had  a son,  John,  tenth  Lord  Lindsay  of  Byres,  after- 
ward earl  of  Crawford-Lindsay ; and  a daughter,  Helen,  married 
to  Sir  William  Scot  of  Ardross.f  She  did  not  long  remain  a 
widow,  having  married,  for  her  second  husband,  in  the  year  1617, 
Robert,  sixth  Lord  Boyd,j:  an  excellent  man,  who  studied  at 

* Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  i.,  pp.  678,  679.  t Ibid,  vol.  i.,  pp.  386,  679. 

t The  marriage  contract  between  her  and  that  nobleman  bears  the  date  of  that 
year.  Chalmers’  MS.  Account  of  the  Noble  Families  of  Scotland,  in  advocates' 
library,  volume  i.,  p.  22.  Lord  Boyd  was  a widower,  having  been  previously  mar- 
ried to  Lady  Margaret  Montgomery,  daughter  of  Robert  Montgomery  of  GifFen, 
and  relict  of  Hugh,  fifth  earl  of  Eglinton.  (Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  ii.,  p.  35.)  The 
marriage  contract  between  him  and  this  lady  is  dated  October,  1614  ; and  in  refer- 
ence to  this  marriage,  writing,  June  22,  1614,  from  London  to  his  cousin,  Robert 
Boyd  of  Trochrig,  then  on  the  continent,  he  says,  “ Sir  George  [Elphingstoun]  and 
Sir  Thomas  have  told  me  their  commission,  which  is  marriage  with  the  earl  of 
Eglinton  his  wife  [widow]  and  has  shown  me  many  good  reasons." — Wodrow’fl 
life  of  Robert  Boyd  of  Trochrig,  printed  by  the  Maitland  Club,  p.  114. 


LADY  BOYD. 


37 


Saumurj  under  his  cousin,  the  famous  Mr.  Robert  Boyd  of  Troch- 
rig,  from  whom  he  seems  to  have  derived,  in  addition  to  secular 
learning,  much  religious  advantage. 

Like  the  marchioness  of  Hamilton,  Lady  Boyd  joined  the 
ranks  of  the  presbyterians  who  resisted  the  attempts  of  James 
VL,  and  Charles  L,  to  impose  prelacy  upon  the  church  of  Scot- 
land. With  many  of  the  most  eminent  ministers  of  those  times, 
as  Mr.  Robert  Bruce,  Mr.  Robert  Boyd,  Mr.  Robert  Blair,  Mr. 
Samuel  Rutherford,  and  Mr.  John  Livingstone,  she  was  on  terms 
of  intimate  friendship ; and  her  many  Christian  virtues  procured 
her  a high  place  in  their  esteem,  and,  indeed,  in  the  esteem  of 
all  ranks  and  classes  of  her  countrymen.  Experiencing  in  her 
own  heart  the  saving  influence  of  Divine  truth,  she  was  desirous 
that  others,  in  like  manner,  might  experience  its  saving  power ; 
and  with  this  view  she  encouraged  the  preaching  of  the  gospel, 
exercising  a generous  hospitality  and  liberality  toward  its  minis- 
ters, receiving  them  into  her  house,  and  supplying  them  with 
money.  In  his  life,  written  by  himself,  Mr.  John  Livingstone 
speaks  of  residing  for  some  time,  during  the  course  of  his  minis- 
try, in  the  house  of  Kilmarnock,  with  “ worthy  Lady  Boyd 
and  mentions  her  as  one  of  four  ladies  of  rank*  of  whom  he  got 
at  several  times  supply  of  money.” 

During  the  struggles  of  the  presbyterians  in  behalf  of  the  lib- 
erties of  the  church,  for  many  years  previous  to  the  second  Ref- 
ormation, it  was  the  practice  of  the  more  zealous  among  them, 
both  with  the  view  of  promoting  their  own  personal  piety  and  of 
commending  to  God  the  desolate  condition  of  the  church,  to  hold 
meetings  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  for  humiliation  and 
prayer,  on  such  stated  days  as  were  agreed  upon  by  general  cor- 
respondence. And  such  as  could  not  conveniently  attend  at  the 
particular  place  fixed  upon  in  the  part  of  the  country  where  they 
resided,  not  unfrequently  kept  the  diet  either  at  their  own  house 
or  at  the  house  of  a friend,  where  a few  assembled ; and  in  these 
cases  they  endeavored,  if  possible,  to  obtain  the  presence  of  a 
minister.  Of  these  private  social  meetings  Lady  Boyd  was  an 
encourager ; and  when  it  was  inconvenient  or  impossible  for  her 
to  be  present  at  the  appointed  place  of  meeting  in  her  locality, 
she  spent  the  day  in  humiliation  and  prayer  in  her  own  house. 
A letter  which  she  wrote  to  Mr.  Robert  Boyd  of  Trochrig,  then 
principal  of  the  college  of  Glasgow,  requesting  him  to  favor  her 
with  his  presence  at  her  house  on  one  of  these  occasions,  has 

* The  other  ladies  were  the  countess  of  Wigton,  Lady  Innerteel  and  the  countess 
of  Eglinton. — Select  biographies  printed  for  the  Wodrow  society,  vol.  i.,  p,  148. 

4 


38 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


been  preserved,  and  may  be  given  as  illustrating  the  pious  spirit 
by  which  she  was  distinguished.  It  is  without  date,  but  from 
the  subject  matter,  it  was  probably  written  about  1620  or  1621, 
and  is  as  follows  : — 

“Right  Honorable  Sir  : Seeing  it  hath  pleased  God,  my 
husband, — my  lord  is  content  that  I bring  the  bairns  to  the  land- 
wart,*  I thought  good  to  advertise  you  of  it,  that  you  may  do  me 
that  great  pleasure  as  to  come  and  bring  your  wife  with  you,  on 
Thursday,  for  I would  fain  have  good  company  that  day,  since  I 
have  great  need  of  help,  being  of  myself  very  unable  to  spend 
that  day  as  I ought.  Now  seeing  it  hath  pleased  God  to  move 
your  heart  to  take  care  of  my  soul,  and  to  be  very  comfortable 
to  me,  being  he  to  whom  only  I have  opened  my  secret  griefs, 
and  of  whom  I must  crave  counsel  in  those  things  which  my 
other  friends  can  not  and  shall  not  know.  It  is  common  to  God’s 
children  and  the  wicked  to  be  under  crosses,  but  crosses  chase 
God’s  children  to  him.  O that  anything  would  chase  me  to  God. 
But,  alas ! that  which  chases  others  to  God,  by  the  strength  of 
sin  it  holds  me  further  from  God ; for  I am  seeking  for  comfort 
in  outward  things,  and  the  Lord  will  not  let  me  find  it  there. 
When  I should  pray  or  read  God’s  word,  or  hear  it  preached  or 
read,  then  my  mind  is  possessed  with  thoughts  how  to  eschew 
temporal  grief,  or  how  to  get  temporal  contentment.  But,  alas ! 
this  .doing  is  a building  up  of  mountains  betwixt  my  soul  and  the 
sense  of  God’s  presence,  which  only  ministers  contentment  to  a 
soul ; and  by  thus  doiug,  I deserve  to  be  plunged  in  infinite  and 
endless  grief.  Now,  Sir,  I will  not  trouble  you  longer  with  this 
discourse.  Hoping  to  see  you  shortly, 

“ I rest  your  loving  sister  in  Christ, 

“ Badenheath.”  “ Christian  Hamilton.! 

These  religious  meetings,  which  contributed  greatly  to  foster 
a spirit  of  opposition  to  the  innovations  then  attempted  to  be  im- 
posed upon  the  church  of  Scotland,  the  bishops  regarded  with 
great  jealousy,  and  they  endeavored,  if  possible,  to  put  them  down 
by  forcible  means.  Mr.  Robert  Bruce  having  held  two  of  them 
in  his  own  house  at  Monkland,  after  his  return  to  the  south  from 
Inverness,  whither  he  had  been  banished  for  several  years  on 
account  of  his  principles,  he  was  delated  to  the  king ; and  though 
the  meetings  were  private,  the  number  present  at  them  not  ex- 

Landwart/’  Scottice  for  “country.” 

t Wodrow's  Life  of  Robert  Boyd,  pp.  271, 272.  Wodrow  says  that  “ she  writes 
in  a very  fair  hand  for  that  time.” 


LADY  BOYD. 


39 


ceeding  twenty,  he  was,  in  consequence,  forced  to  retire  from 
Monkland,  and  was  ultimately  again  banished  to  Inverness.  Mr. 
Robert  Boyd,  the  correspondent  of  Lady  Boyd,  was  also,  for 
patronising  such  meetings,  greatly  harassed.  After  the  passing 
of  the  Perth  articles  in  the  general  assembly  of  1618,  Boyd, 
though  opposed  to  these  articles,  had  not,  owing  to  the  mildness 
and  peaceableness  of  his  disposition,  interfered  publicly  with  the 
controversies  thereby  occasioned ; from  which  the  bishops  con- 
cluded that,  if  not  friendly  to  the  innovations,  he  was  at  least 
neutral ; but  his  attendance  at  these  meetings  in  Mr.  Robert 
Bruce’s  house,*  and  at  similar  meetings  in  other  places,  excited 
against  him  the  hostility  of  the  bishops  and  of  the  king,  who  in- 
ferring from  this  his  nonconforming  propensities,  immediately 
began  to  contemplate  the  adoption  of  harsh  measures  against 
him.f  In  these  circumstances.  Lady  Boyd  addressed  to  him  an 
encouraging  letter.  It  is  well  written,  and  bears  testimony  to 
the  high  opinion  she  entertained  of  Boyd,  as  a man  and  a Chris- 
tian minister,  as  well  as  finely  illustrates  the  heroic  spirit  by 
which  she  was  animated,  and  shows  how  well  qualified  she  was 
to  cheer  up  the^hearts  of  such  as  were  subjected  to  persecution 
for  righteousness’  sake.  It  is  dated  December  17,  but  the  year 
is  omitted.  Its  contents,  however,  indicate  that  it  was  written 
in  the  year  1621  ; and  it  is  as  follows  : — 

“ Right  Honorable  Sir  : I hear  there  is  some  appearance 
of  your  trouble,  by  reason  the  king’s  majesty  is  displeased  with 
you  for  your  being  with  Mr.  Robert  Bruce.  Since  I heard  of 
^these  unpleasant  news,  I have  had  a great  desire  to  see  you,  for 
whatsoever  is  a grief  to  you  is  also  grievous  to  me,  for,  since  it 
pleased  God  to  bring  me  to  acquaintance  with  you,  your  good 
advice  and  pious  instructions  have  ofttimes  refreshed  my  very 
soul ; and  now,  if  I be  separated  from  you,  so  as  not  to  have  oc- 
casion to  pour  out  my  griefs  unto  you,  and  receive  counsel  and 
comfort  from  you,  truly  I wot  not  what  to  do.  And  as  I regret 
my  own  particular  loss,  much  more  may  I regret  the  great  loss 
our  kirk  sustains,  and  is  threatened  with.  But  as  for  you,  if  the 
Lord  should  honor  you,  and  set  you  to  suffer  for  his  name,  I trust 
in  his  mercy  he  shall  strengthen  you  and  make  his  power  perfect 
in  your  weakness.  The  apostles  rejoiced  that  they  were  counted 
worthy  to  suffer  for  the  name  of  Christ,  and  the  apostle  says, 

Boyd  .regarded  Bruce  with  peculiar  respect  and  veneration.  Speaking  of  him, 
he  says,  ‘‘  whom  one  may  call  justly  the  Baeile  or  Bernard  of  our  age." — Wodrow^s 
Life  of  Boyd,  p.  10.  tlbid.,  p.  151. 


40 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


‘ Unto  you  it  is  given,  in  the  behalf  of  Christ,  not  only  to  believe 
on  him,  but  also  to  suffer  for  his  sake.'  Now  if  ye  be  called  to 
this  honor,  I pray  God  give  you  his  grace,  that  ye  may  account 
it  your  honor,  for  if  ye  suffer  with  Christ,  you  shall  also  reign 
with  him.  I trust  in  the  mercy  of  God  that  all  things  shall  work 
together  for  the  best  to  you.  If  it  might  please  our  God,  who  is 
merciful,  to  continue  you  in  your  ministry,  I humbly  crave  it ; 
but  if  he  will  glorify  himself  in  your  suffering,  his  good  will  be 
done.  Ye  will  lose  nothing  here,  and  what  ye  lose  it  will  be 
recompensed  a hundred-fold.  The  loss  will  be  ours,  who  are 
left  as  sheep  without  a shepherd,  ready  to  wander  and  be  devour- 
ed by  wolves.  Now  if  I have  a wandering  soul,  the  Lord  in 
mercy  pity  me  ! for  I am  afraid  of  making  defection,  if  the  bread 
of  life  be  not  continued  with  me.  In  sincerity,  it  will  not  be 
philosophy  nor  eloquence  will  draw  me  from  the  broad  way  of 
perdition,  unless  a voice  be  lifted  up  like  a trumpet  to  tell  me 
my  sin.  The  Lord  give  us  the  spirit  of  wisdom,  even  that  wis- 
dom that  will  prove  wise  in  the  end,  when  the  wise  men  of  this 
world  will  be  calling  upon  the  hills  and  the  mountains  ! O Lord, 
give  us  grace  to  provide  our  oil  here,  that  we  may  enter  in  with 
the  bridegroom,  and  be  made  partakers  of  his  riches  and  joy, 
when  they  that  have  embraced  the  world  and  denied  Christ  shall 
have  their  portion  v/ith  the  devil ! Sir,  I will  not  trouble  you 
further  at  this  time.  If  you  have  leisure  I would  be  glad  to  see 
you,  or  at  any  other  time,  and  to  hear  from  you.  So,  remember- 
ing my  duty  to  your  wife,  and  commending  you  and  her  and  the 
children  to  God, 

“ I rest  your  most  affectionate  sister  at  power, 

“ Badenheath,  Dec.  17.”  “ Christian  Hamilton.* 

From  this  letter  it  appears  that  Lady  Boyd  sat  under  the  min- 
istry of  Mr.  Boyd,t  which  she  greatly  valued,  as  she  had  good 
reason  to  do,  if  we  may  judge  of  his  pastoral  instructions  from 
the  specimens  of  his  theological  writings  which  have  been  pub- 
lished ; and  Boyd,  having  become  obnoxious  to  the  bishops  and 
the  king,  she  was  apprehensive  of  being  deprived  of  his  public 
ministrations,  as  well  as  of  his  society  in  private,  by  his  being 
removed  from  his  charge,  and  perhaps  obliged  to  leave  the  coun- 
try. The  result  was,  that  demitting  his  situation  as  principal  of 
the  college  of  Glasgow,  he  retired  to  his  estate  of  Trochrig,  and 
afterward,  to  the  day  of  his  death,  suffered,  in  various  ways,  on 

^ Wodrow’s  Life  of  Robert  Boyd,  pp.  272,  273. 

t At  the  time  this  letter  was  written,  Boyd,  besides  being  principal  of  the  college 
of  Glasgow,  was  minister  of  Govan. 


LADY  BOYD. 


41 


account  of  his  nonconformity.  It  is  not  easy,”  says  Wodrow, 
“ upon  such  a subject  not  to  mix  a little  gall  with  my  ink  ; but  I 
shall  only  say,  it’s  a remaining  stain,  and  must  be,  in  the  eyes 
of  all  that  fear  God,  and  know  what  prayer  is,  upon  the  bishops 
of  this  period,  and  the  government  who  were  brought,  by  their 
importunity,  to  persecute  such  eminent  persons  as  Mr.  Bruce 
and  Mr.  Boyd,  for  joining  in  Such  meetings  for  prayer,  in  such 
a time  as  this.  Mr.  Bruce  was  confined  ; Mr.  Boyd  was  informed 
against  to  the  king ; and  this,  as  the  writer  of  his  life  notices, 
was  one  main  spring  of  the  violent  opposition  made  against  him. 
Such  procedure,  no  doubt,  is  a reproach  upon  a protestant,  yea, 
upon  a country  that  bears  the  name  of  Christian,”* 

As  another  specimen  of  the  pious  spirit  which  breathed  in 
Lady  Boyd’s  epistolary  correspondence,  we  may  quote  another 
of  her  letters  to  Mj;.  Boyd,  which  is  without  date,  but  which 
Wodrow  supposes  was  written  about  harvest  1622.  She  thus 
writes  : — 

“ My  husband:  has  written  for  me  to  come  to  your  feast,  but  in 
truth  it  were  better  for  me  to  be  called  to  a fast.  I trowf  the 
Lord  of  hosts  is  calling  to  weeping,  and  fasting,  and  sackcloth. 
I pray  you,  sir,  remember  me  in  your  prayers  to  God,  that  he 
may  supply  to  me  the  want  of  your  counsels  and  comforts,  and 
all  other  wants  to  me  ; and  that  at  this  time,  and  at  all  other  times, 
he  vAOuld  give  me  grace  to  set  his  majesty  before  me,  that  I may 
walk  as  in  his  sight,  and  study  to  approve  myself  to  him.  Now 
sir,  I entreat  you  when  you  have  leisure  write  to  me,  and  adver- 
tise me  how  ye  and  yours  are,  and  likewise  stir  me  up  to  seek 
the  Lord.  Show  me  how  I shall  direct  to  you,  for  I must  crave 
leave  to  trouble  you  at  some  times.  Now  I pray  God  to  recom- 
pense ten  thousand  fold  your  kindness  to  me,  with  the  daily 
increase  of  all  saving  grace  here,  and  endless  glory  hereafter. 
Remember  me  to  Mr.  Zachary ; desire  him  to  come,  and  bear 
my  lord  company  awhile  after  ye  are  settled.  I entreat,  when 
you  come  back  again  to  Glasgow,  that  you  may  come  here,  for 
I think  I have  not  taken  my  leave  of  you  yet.  Till  then  and  ever, 
“ I rest  your  loving  sister  in  Christ  to  my  power, 

“ Christian  Hamilton.’’^: 

In  1628  Lady  Boyd  was  left  a widow  a second  time.  Lord 
Boyd  having  died  in  August  that  year,  at  the  early  age  of  thirty- 
three.  To  this  nobleman  she  had  a son,  Robert  seventh  Lord 

Wodrow’s  Life  of  Robert  Boyd,  p.  151.  t Trow,’'  Scottice  for  believe." 

tibid,  pp.  273,  274. 


4* 


42 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


Boyd,  and  six  daughters  : 1,  Helen,  who  died  unmarried ; 2,  Ag- 
nes, married  to  Sir  George  Morison  of  Dairsie,  in  Fife  ; 3,  Jean, 
married  to  Sir  Alexander  Morison  of  Prestongrange,  in  the  coun- 
ty of  Haddington;  4,  Marion,  married  to  Sir  James  Dundas  of 
Arnistoun  ; 5,  Isabel,  married  first  to  John  Sinclair  of  Stevenston, 
secondly  to  John  Grierson  of  Lagg ; and  6,  Christian,  married  to 
Sir  William  Scot  of  Harden.* 

At  the  period  of  the  attempted  imposition  of  the  book  of  canons 
and  the  service-book  or  liturgy  upon  the  Scottish  church,  by  royal 
authority,  many,  both  ministers  and  laity,  were  subjected  to  per- 
secution for  resisting  these  invasions  on  the  liberties  of  the 
church  ; and  to  such  persons,  as  might  be  anticipated  from  the 
benevolence  of  her  character  and  her  ecclesiastical  principles. 
Lady  Boyd  was  at  all  times  heartily  disposed  to  extend  her  en- 
couragement and  aid  by  letter,  word,  or  deed.  When  Rutherford 
was  confined  to  Aberdeen,  she  maintained  epistolary  intercourse 
with  him ; and  that  worthy  minister  repeatedly  expresses  how 
much  his  soul  was  refreshed  by  her  letters,  as  well  as  gratefully 
acknowledges  that  she  “ ministered  to  him  in  his  bonds.”!  She 
also  took  a friendly  interest  in  his  brother,  Mr.  George,  who  was 
a teacher  in  Kirkcudbright,  but  who,  for  nonconformity,  had  been 
summoned  in  November,  1636,  before  the  high  commission,  and 
condemned  to  resign  his  charge  and  to  remove  from  Kirkcud- 
bright before  the  ensuing  term  of  Whitsunday .J  Rutherford 
frequently  expresses  his  gratitude  to  her  for  her  kindness  to  his 
brother,  who,  after  his  ejection,  had  taken  refuge  in  Ayrshire. 
He  thus  writes  to  her  from  Aberdeen,  on  the  7th  of  March,  1637  : 
“ I think  myself  many  ways  obliged  to  your  ladyship  for  your 
love  to  my  afflicted  brother,  now  embarked  with  me  in  that  same 
cause.  His  Lord  hath  been  pleased  to  put  him  on  truth’s  side.  I 
hope  that  your  ladyship  will  befriend  him  with  your  counsel  and 
countenance  in  that  country  where  he  is  a stranger ; and  your 
ladyship  needeth  not  fear  but  your  kindness  to  his  own  will  be 
put  up  into  Christ’s  accounts. ”||  In  another  letter  to  her  from 
the  same  place,  in  September,  that  year,  he  says,  “ All  that  your 
ladyship  can  expect  for  your  good  will  to  me  and  my  brother  (a 
wronged  servant  for  Christ)  is  the  prayers  of  a prisoner  of  Jesus, 
to  whom  I recommend  your  ladyship,  and  your  house,  and  chil- 
dren.”^ And  in  a communication  to  her  from  St.  Andrews,  in 
1640,  a considerable  time  after  he  had  returned  from  his  confine- 

Douglas’s  Peerage  of  Scotland,  vol.  ii.,  p.  35. 

t Rutherford’s  Letters,  pp.  205,  617,  Whyte  and  Kennedy’s  edition,  1848. 

t Murray’s  Life  of  Rutherford,  pp.  49,  93. 

II  Rutherford’s  Letters,  p.  205.  § Ibid,  p.  494. 


LADY  BOYD. 


43 


merit  in  Aberdeen,  he  thus  expresses  himself : “ I put  all  the 
favors  which  you  have  bestowed  on  my  brother,  upon  Christ’s 
score,  in  whose  books  are  many  such  counts,  and  who  will  re- 
quite them.”* 

Meanwhile  she  was  not  neglectful  of  the  cultivation  of  personal 
piety.  As  she  advanced  in  life  she  continued  with  increasing 
ardor  to  practise  the  Christian  duties,  to  cultivate  holiness  of  char- 
acter, to  confide  in  the  Savior,  and  to  make  sure  of  eternal  life. 
That  such  were  her  Christian  aspirations,  endeavors,  and  attain- 
ments, is  evident  from  her  correspondence  with  the  same  excel- 
lent man ; from  which  we  learn,  that  as  the  Father  of  lights  had 
opened  her  eyes  to  discover  that  whoever  would  be  a Christian 
in  deed  and  in  truth  must  exercise  self-denial,  she  was  resolved 
to  practise  that  duty, — to  pluck  out  the  right  eye,  and  to  cut  off 
the  right  hand,  and  keep  fast  hold  of  the  Son  of  God ; that  she 
had  not  changed  in  the  thoughts  she  had  entertained  of  Christ ; 
and  that  her  purpose  still  was  by  all  means  to  take  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  by  violence.!  It  was  indeed  her  personal  piety  which 
excited  and  enlivened  her  zeal  in  the  public  cause  of  God  ; and 
her  valued  correspondent,  satisfied  that  the  more  she  improved 
in  the  former,  she  would  be  the  more  distinguished  for  the  latter, 
expresses  his  desire  in  a letter  to  her,  in  1640,  that  she  might 
be  builded  more  and  more  upon  the  stone  laid  in  Zion,  and  then 
she  would  be  the  more  fit  to  have  a hand  in  rebuilding  our  Lord’s 
fallen  tabernacle  in  this  land,  “ in  which,”  he  adds,  “ ye  shall 
find  great  peace  when  ye  come  to  grip  with  death,  the  king  of 
terrors.”!  As  a means  of  promoting  her  spiritual  improvement 
she  was  in  the  practice  of  keeping  a diary,  in  which  she  recorded 
her  religious  exercises  and  experiences,  her  defects  and  attain- 
ments, her  sins  and  mercies  ; an  expedient  which  Christians 
have  sometimes  found  to  be  of  great  utility  in  promoting  their 
vigilance,  humility,  gratitude,  and  dependence  upon  God.  ‘‘  She 
used  every  night,”  says  Mr.  Livingstone,  “ to  write  what  had  been 
the  state  of  her  soul  all  the  day,  and  what  she  had  observed  of 
the  Lord’s  dealing.” ||  Such  memorandums  she,  however,  appears 
to  have  intended  solely  for  her  own  eye  ; and  no  remains  of  them 
have  been  transmitted  to  posterity. 

In  the  autumn  of  the  year  1640,  Lady  Boyd  met  with  a pain- 
ful trial  in  the  death  of  three  of  her  brothers,  and  others  of  her 
relatives,  in  very  distressing  circumstances.  Thomas,  second 
earl  of  Haddington,  and  Robert  Hamilton  of  West  Binning,  in 

* Rutherford’s  Letters,,  p.  606.  t Ibid,  pp.  205,  492.  t Ibid,  p.  606 

II  Livingstone’s  Memorable  Characteristics. 


44 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


the  county  of  Linlithgow,  her  brothers  by  her  father’s  second 
wife,*  Patrick  Hamilton,  her  natural  brother,  Sir  John  Hamilton 
of  Redhouse,  her  cousin-german,  and  Sir  Alexander  Erskine, 
fourth  son  of  the  seventh  earl  of  Mar,  brother-in-law  to  her  broth- 
er Thomas,  all  perished  at  Dunglass  castle  (in  the  county  of  Had- 
dington) when  it  was  blown  up  on  the  30th  of  August  that  year. 
They  had  attached  themselves  to  the  covenanters  ; and  ‘when 
General  Leslie  marched  into  England  that  same  year  against 
Charles  L,  they  were  left  behind  by  the  Scottish  parliament,  in 
order  to  resist  the  English  incursions  : and  Thomas,  second  earl 
of  Haddington,  who  had  the  command  of  the  party  thus  left,  fixed 
his  quarters  at  Dunglass  castle.  While  his  lordship,  about  mid- 
day, on  the  30th  of  August,  was  standing  in  a court  of  the  castle, 
surrounded  by  his  friends  now  named,  and  several  other  gentle- 
men, to  whom  he  was  reading  a letter  he  had  just  received  from 
General  Leslie,  a magazine  of  gunpowder  contained  in  a vault  in 
the  castle  blew  up  ; and  one  of  the  side  walls  instantly  over- 
whelmed him  and  all  his  companions,  with  the  exception  of  four, 
who  were  thrown  by  the  force  of  the  explosion  to  a considerable 
distance.  The  earl’s  body  was  found  among  the  rubbish,  and 
buried  at  Tyninghame.  Besides  this  nobleman,  three  or  four 
score  of  gentlemen  lost  their  lives.  It  was  reported  that  the 
magazine  was  designedly  blown  up  by  the  earl’s  page,  Edward 
Paris,  an  English  boy,  who  Avas  so  enraged,  on  account  of  his 
master  having  jestingly  told  him  that  his  countrymen  were  a pack 
of  cowards,  to  suffer  themselves  to  be  beaten  and  to  run  away  at 
Newburn,  that  he  took  a red-hot  iron  and  thrust  it  into  one  of  the 
powder-barrels,  perishing  himself  with  the  rest.f  One  of  the 
most  beautiful  of  Rutherford’s  letters  was  addressed  to  Lady  Boyd 
on  this  melancholy  occasion.  “ I wish,”  says  he,  “ that  I could 
speak  or  write  what  might  do  good  to  your  ladyship,  especially 
now  when  I think  we  can  not  but  have  deep  thoughts  of  the 
deep  and  bottomless  ways  of  our  Lord,  in  taking  away  with  a 
sudden  and  wonderful  stroke  your  brothers  and  friends.  You  may 
know  that  all  who  die  for  sin,  die  not  in  sin ; and  that  ‘ none  can 
teach  the  Almighty  knowledge.’  He  answereth  none  of  our 
courts,  and  no  man  can  say,  ‘ What  doest  thou  V It  is  true  that 
your  brothers  saw  not  many  summers,  but  adore  and  fear  the 
sovereignty  of  the  great  Potter  who  maketh  and  marreth  his  clay- 

Her  father’s  second  wife  was  Margaret,  daughter  of  James  Foulis,  of  Colinton, 
in  the  county  of  Edinburgh. 

t Douglas's  Peerage  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.,  p.  680 ; Scot's  Staggering  State  of  Scots 
Statesnoen. 


LADY  BOYD. 


45 


vessels  when  and  how  it  pleaseth  him Oh  what  wisdom  is 

it  to  believe,  and  not  to  dispute  ; to  subject  the  thoughts  to  his 
court,  and  not  to  repine  at  any  act  of  his  justice  ! He  hath  done 
it : all  flesh  be  silent ! It  is  impossible  to  be  submissive  and  re- 
ligiously patient,  if  you  stay  your  thoughts  down  among  the  con- 
fused rollings  and  wheels  of  second  causes  ; as,  ‘ Oh,  the  place  !’ 
— ‘ Oh,  the  time  ‘ Oh,  if  this  had  been,  this  had  not  followed  !’ 
— ‘ Oh,  the  linking  of  this  accident  with  this  time  and  place  !’ 
Look  up  to  the  master  motion  and  the  first  wheel.  ...  I believe, 
Christian  lady,  your  faith  leaveth  that  much  charity  to  our  Lord’s 
judgments  as  to  believe,  howbeit  you  be  in  blood  sib  to  that  cross, 
that  yet  you  are  exempted  and  freed  from  the  gall  and  wrath  that 
is  in  it.  I dare  not  deny  but  ‘the  King  of  Terrors  dwelleth  in 
the  wicked  man’s  tabernacle  : brimstone  shall  be  scattered  on 
his  habitation’  (Job  xviii.  15) ; yet,  madam,  it  is  safe  for  you  to 
live  upon  the  faith  of  his  love,  whose  arms  are  over-watered  and 
pointed  with  loA^e  and  mercy  to  his  own,  and  who  knoweth  how 
to  take  you  and  yours  out  of  the  roll  and  book  of  the  dead.”* 

In  less  than  three  months  after  this  visitation.  Lady  Boyd  lost 
her  son  Lord  Boyd,  who  died  of  a fever  on  the  17th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1640,  at  the  early  age.  of  twenty-four. f But  her  sorrow  un- 
der this  bereavement  was  alleviated  from  the  hope  which,  on 
good  grounds,  she  was  enabled  to  entertain  that  her  son,  who  was 
deservedly  dear  to  her,  had  exchanged  the  present  for  a better 
world.  Trained  up  in  the  fear  of  God,  he  gave  pleasing  indica- 
tions of  early  piety,  and,  embracing  the  sentiments  of  the  cove- 
nanters, entered  with  all  the  interest  and  ardor  of  youthful  zeal 
into  their  contendings  against  the  encroachments  of  the  court  on 
the  rights  of  the  church.  To  this,  ample  testimony  is  borne  in 
Rutherford’s  letters.  Writing  to  him  from  Aberdeen,  in  1637, 
Rutherford,  hearing  of  his  zeal  for  the  “ borne-down  and  oppressed 
gospel,”  affectionately  stimulates  him  to  continued  exertion  in  the 
same  cause  ; and  in  a subsequent  letter  to  him  he  says  : “ I am 
glad  to  hear  that  you,  in  the  morning  of  your  short  day,  mind 
Christ,  and  that  you  love  the  honor  of  his  crown  and  kingdom. 
....  Ye  are  one  of  Zion’s  born  sons  ; your  honorable  and  Chris- 
tian parents  would  venture  you  upon  Christ’s  errands. Addres- 
sing Lady  Boyd  from  Aberdeen,  May  1,  1637,  Rutherford  thus 
writes  : “ I have  reasoned  with  your  son,  at  large ; I rejoice  to 
see  him  set  his  face  in  the  right  airth,  now  when  the  nobles  love 
the  sunny  side  of  the  gospel  best,  and  are  afraid  that  Christ  wants 

^ Rutherford’s  Letters,  pp.  617,  618.  t Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  635, 636. 
t Rutherford’s  Letters,  pp.  139,  469. 


46 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


soldiers,  and  shall  not  be  able  to  do  for  himself.”*  And  in  an- 
other letter  to  her  he  expresses  his  gratitude  to  this  generous  and 
benevolent  youth,  “ who,”  says  he,  “ was  kind  to  me  in  my  bonds, 
and  was  not  ashamed  to  own  me.”t  Lord  Boyd  was  one  of  those 
noblemen  who,  on  the  22d  of  February,  1638,  ascended  the  cross 
of  Edinburgh,  to  protest  against  the  proclamation  which  was  that 
day  made,  containing  his  majesty’s  approbation  of  the  service- 
book,  granting  a dispensation  to  the  noblemen  and  gentlemen  who 
opposed  it  for  their  past  meetings,  and  discharging  all  their  meet- 
ings for  the  future  under  pain  of  treason.^:  He  subscribed  the 
national  covenant  when  renewed  on  the  1st  of  March  that  year, 
in  the  Greyfriars’  church ; and  zealously  co-operated  with  the 
covenanters  in  their  proceedings  in  opposition  to  the  measures 
of  the  court. 

In  her  other  son,  John,  tenth  Lord  Lindsay,  afterward  earl  of 
Crawford-Lindsay,  Lady  Boyd  had  also  much  comfort.  His  reli- 
gious sentiments  coincided  with  her  own,  and  his  active  zeal  in 
defending  the  liberties  of  the  church,  was  associated  with  sincere 
piety  and  a high  character  for  moral  worth,  which  he  maintained 
unimpaired  to  the  close  of  a long  life.  In  a letter  to  him  from 
Aberdeen,  in  September,  1637,  Rutherford  writes  : “ Your  noble 
ancestors  have  been  enrolled  among  the  worthies  of  this  nation 
as  the  sure  friends  of  the  Bridegroom,  and  valiant  for  Christ : I 
hope  that  you  will  follow  on  to  come  to  the  streets  for  the  same 
Lord.”||  Nor  was  the  hope  thus  expressed  disappointed.  He 
was  also  one  of  the  noblemen  who,  on  the  22d  of  February,  1637, 
appeared  at  the  cross  of  Edinburgh,  to  protest  against  his  majes- 
ty’s proclamation  already  referred  to.  He  likewise  subscribed 
the  national  covenant  when  renewed  at  Edinburgh  a few  days 
after,  and  cordially  supported  the  covenanters,  attending  their 
meetings,  and  giving  them  the  benefit  of  his  counsel  and  aid.§ 
He  thus  secured  a high  place  in  the  confidence  of  his  party. 
Writing  of  this  nobleman,  and  of  Lord  Boyd,  to  their  mother, 
Rutherford  says  : “ Your  ladyship  is  blessed  with  children  who 
are  honored  to  build  up  Christ’s  waste  places.  I believe  that 
your  ladyship  will  think  them  well  bestowed  in  that  work,  and 
that  Zion’s  beauty  is  your  joy.”*[[ 

Some  of  Lady  Boyd’s  daughters  were  also  distinguished  for 
personal  piety,  and  for  a resolute  adherence  to  duty  in  the  face 

* Rutherford’s  Letters,  p.  308.  t Ibid.,  p.  548.  t Rothes^s  Relation,  &c,,  p.  67. 

II  Rutherford’s  Letters,  p.  466.  § Rothes’s  Relation,  &.C.,  passim, 

IF  Rutherford’s  Letters,  p.  605.  The  letter  is  dated  St  Andrews,  1640.  For  a 
further  account  of  Lord  Lindsay,  see  Notice  of  Duchess  of  Rothes. 


LADY  BOYD. 


47 


of  persecution.  The  sufferings  endured  by  her  daughter  Chris- 
tian, the  wife  of  Sir  William  Scot,  of  Harden,  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  II.,  for  attending  conventicles,  have  been  already  briefly 
stated  in  the  introduction.  We  also  know  that  another  of  her 
daughters,  Helen,  wife  of  Sir  William  Scot,  of  Ardross,  was  an 
excellent  woman. 

Rutherford  when  in  London,  in  1640  and  in  1644,  corresponded 
with  Lady  Boyd,  giving  her  accounts  of  the  state  of  religious  par- 
ties there,  and  informing  her  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Westmin- 
ster assembly,  of  which  he  was  a member.* 

During  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1644,  when  the  marquis  of 
Montrose  came  into  Scotland,  and  during  the  greater  part  of  the 
following  year,  our  country  suffered  much  from  that  ruthless  ren- 
egade, who,  with  an  army  composed  of  Highlanders  and  Irish 
papists,  perpetrated  the  most  atrocious  deeds  of  cruelty,  lust,  and 
rapine.  But  in  September,  1645,  he  was  completely  defeated  at 
Philiphaugh  by  Lieutenant-General  David  Leslie,  who  had  come 
home  with  some  regiments  from  England,  where  the  regular 
troops  of  Scotland  had  been  engaged.  The  joy  which  this  vic- 
tory diffused  among  our  countrymen  was  great.  As  an  evidence 
of  this,  we  may  mention  the  following  incident,  which  took  place 
on  a sabbath-day  at  the  parish  church  of  Elie,  where  Lady  Boyd 
was  present  hearing  sermon.  About  the  close  of  the  afternoon’s 
discourse  by  Mr.  Robert  Traill,  the  minister  of  the  parish,  David 
Lindsay,  brother  to  Lord  Balcarres,  came  into  the  church  with  a 
letter  to  her  from  her  son,  earl  of  Crawford-Lindsay,  containing 
the  tidings  of  Montrose’s  defeat.  Public  worship  being  concluded, 
he  delivered  it  to  her  in  the  church,  and  the  people  all  staying  to 
hear  the  news,  the  letter  was  read.  On  hearing  its  contents, 
they  were  so  overjoyed,  that  they  all  returned  into  the  church 
and  solemnly  gave  thanks  to  God  for  the  deliverance  vouchsafed 
to  the  country  by  this  signal  victory  gained  over  an  enemy  whose 
successes  had  made  him  formidable,  and  his  barbarities  very  gen- 
erally detested.! 

Lady  Boyd  died  in  the  house  of  her  daughter  Lady  Ardross,  in 
the  parish  of  Elie,  about  the  beginning  of  the  year  1646.  On 
her  death-bed  she  was  frequently  visited  by  Mr.  Robert  Traill, 
minister  of  that  parish,  who  informs  us  in  his  diary  that  she  died 
very  comfortably. j:  Her  funeral  took  place  on  the  6th  of  Febru- 
ary, and  was  attended  by  a large  concourse  of  people  of  all  ranks. 

’’  Rutherford’s  Letters,  pp,  625,  632. 

t Extracts  from  Mr.  Robert  Traill’s  Diary,  in  MS.  Letters  to  WodroWi  vol.  xix., 
No.  68,  in  Advocates’  Library.  X Ibid 


48 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


All  the  members  of  parliament,  which  had  been  sitting  in  St.  An- 
drews, were  invited  to  it ; and  though  the  parliament  closed  on 
the  4th  of  that  month,  all  its  members  stayed  in  town,  partly  be- 
cause the  next  day  was  appointed  to  be  kept  as  a day  of  solemn 
humiliation  through  the  whole  kingdom,  and  partly  to  testify  their 
respect  for  this  lady,  by  following  her  mortal  remains  to  their 
last  resting-place.  Mr.  Robert  Blair,  then  minister  of  St.  An- 
drews, who  was  well  acquainted  with  her,  and  who  highly  appre- 
ciated the  excellence  of  her  Christian  character,  also  paid  to  her 
this  last  tribute  of  friendship,  and  wrote  two  epitaphs  in  honor  of 
her  memory,  the  one  in  Latin  and  the  other  in  English  ;*  neither 
of  which,  however,  we  have  seen.  Rutherford,  who  was  at  that 
time  in  London,  attending  the  Westminster  assembly,  on  hearing 
of  the  death  of  a friend  and  correspondent  he  so  highly  esteemed, 
addressed  to  her  daughter.  Lady  Ardross,  a consolatory  letter : 
“ It  hath  seemed  good,  as  I hear,”  says  he,  “ to  Him  that  hath 
appointed  the  bounds  for  the  number  of  our  months,  to  gather  in 
a sheaf  of  ripe  corn,  in  the  death  of  your  Christian  mother,  into 
his  garner.  It  is  the  more  evident  that  winter  is  near,  when 
apples,  without  the  violence  of  wind,  fall  of  their  own  accord  off 
the  tree.  She  is  now  above  the  winter,  with  a little  change  of 
place,  not  of  a Savior  ; only  she  enjoy eth  him  now  without  mes- 
sages, and  in  his  own  immediate  presence,  from  whom  she  heard 
by  letters  and  messengers  before.”  He  further  says  : “Ye  may 
easily  judge,  madam,  what  a large  recompense  is  made  to  all  her 
service,  her  walking  with  God,  and  her  sorrows,  with  the  first 
cast  of  the  soul’s  eye  upon  the  shining  and  admirably  beautiful 
face  of  the  Lamb  that  is  in  the  midst  of  that  fair  and  white  army 
which  is  there,  and  with  the  first  draught  and  taste  of  the  fount- 
ain of  life,  fresh  and  new  at  the  well-head  ; to  say  nothing  of  the 
enjoying  of  that  face,  without  date,  far  more  than  this  term  of  life 
which  we  now  enjoy.  And  it  cost  her  no  more  to  go  thither  than 
to  suffer  death  to  do  her  this  piece  of  service  ; for  by  Him  who 
was  dead  and  is  alive,  she  was  delivered  from  the  second  death. 
What,  then,  is  the  first  death  to  the  second  ? Not  a scratch  of 
the  skin  of  a finger  to  the  endless  second  death.  And  now  she 
sitteth  for  eternity  mail-free,  in  a very  considerable  land,  which 
hath  more  than  four  summers  in  the  year.  Oh,  what  spring-time 
is  there  ! Even  the  smelling  of  the  odors  of  that  great  and  eter- 
nally-blooming Rose  of  Sharon  for  ever  and  ever  ! What  a sing- 
ing life  is  there  ! There  is  not  a dumb  bird  in  all  that  large  field  ; 
but  all  sing  and  breathe  out  heaven,  joy,  glory,  dominion,  to  the 
* Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  180. 


LADY  CULROSS. 


49 


High  Prince  of  that  new-found  land.  And  verily,  the  land  is  the 
sweeter,  that  Jesus  Christ  paid  so  dear  a rent  for  it,  and  he  is 
the  glory  of  the  land  : all  which,”  he  adds,  for  Lady  Ardross,  as 
has  been  said  before,  was  a woman  of  like  spirit  with  her  mother, 
‘‘  I hope,  doth  not  so  much  mitigate  and  allay  your  grief  for  her 
part  (though  truly  this  should  seem  sufficient),  as  the  unerring 
expectation  of  the  dawning  of  that  day  upon  yourself,  and  the 
hope  you  have  of  the  fruition  of  that  same  king  and  kingdom  to 
your  own  soul.”* 


ELIZABETH  MELVILL. 

LADY  CULROSS. 

Elizabeth  Melvill,  a contemporary  of  the  two  ladies  previ- 
ously noticed,  was  the  daughter  of  Sir  James  Melvill  of  Halhill 
in  Fife.  Her  father,  who  was  one  of  the  most  accomplished 
statesmen  and  courtiers  of  his  age,  was  embassador  from  Queen 
Mary  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  a privy  counsellor  to  King  James 
VI.  He  was  also  a man  of  sincere  piety,  and  as  Mr.  John  Liv- 
ingstone informs  us,  “ professed  he  had  got  assurance  from  the 
Lord  that  himself,  wife,  and  all  his  children  should  meet  in  heav- 
en.”! After  a long  and  active  life  he  died  on  the  13h  of  Novem- 
ber, 1617.  Her  mother  was  Christian,  seventh  daughter  of 
David  Boswell  of  Balmuto.J  Her  husband,  James  Colvill,  was 
the  eldest  son  of  Alexander  Colvill,  commendator  of  Culross. 
On  the  death  of  James,  second  Lord  Colvill  of  Culross,  in  1640, 
he  became  of  right  third  Lord  Colvill,  but  did  not  assume  that 
title. 

At  what  period  the  subject  of  this  notice  experienced  the  re- 
newing grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit  we  are  ignorant,  but  few  women 
of  her  day  became  more  eminent  for  exemplary  piety  and  reli- 
gious intelligence,  or  more  extensively  known,  and  more  highly 
esteemed  among  the  ministers  and  professors  of  the  church  of 
Scotland.  Taking  her  place  among  those  who  resisted  the  at- 
tempts made  to  wrest  from  the  church  her  own  free  and  inde- 
pendent jurisdiction,  and  to  bring  her  in  her  worship  and  whole 

* Rutherford’s  Letters,  p.  655.  See  a letter  of  Mr.  Robert  M‘ Ward’s  to  Lady 
Ardross,  in  Appendix  No.  1. 

t Livingstone’s  Memorable  Characteristics  in  Select  Biographies,  printed  for  the 
Wodrow  Society,  vol.  i.,  p,  346.  t Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.,  ii.  pp.  113,  310. 

5 


60 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


administration  under  the  entire  control  of  the  crown,  she  interested 
herself  greatly  in  their  contendings.  The  fortitude  displayed 
by  the  defenders  of  truth  and  freedom  commanded  her  admiration  : 
their  sufferings  excited  her  sympathy.  To  these  sentiments 
and  feelings  she  gave  expression  in  the  following  sonnet  of  her  - 
own  composition,  which  she  sent  to  Mr.  John  Welsh,  when,  for 
holding  a general  assembly  at  Aberdeen  in  July,  1605,  he  was 
imprisoned  in  the  castle  of  Blackness,  and  so  closely  confined 
as  to  be  secluded  from  all  intercourse  with  his  friends  : — 

“My  dear  brother,  with  courage  bear  the  cross, 

Joy  shall  be  joined  with  all  thy  sorrow  here, 

High  is  thy  hope,  disdain  this  earthly  dross. 

Once  shall  you  see  the  wished  day  appear. 

“ Now  it  is  dark,  the  sky  can  not  be  clear, 

After  the  clouds  it  shall  be  calm  anon  ; 

W ait  on  his  will  whose  blood  hath  brought  thee  dear — 

Extol  his  name,  though  outward  joys  be  gone. 

“ Look  to  the  Lord,  thou  art  not  left  alone, 

Since  he  is  thine,  what  pleasure  canst  thou  take  ? 

He  is  at  hand,  and  hears  thy  every  groan: 

End  out  thy  fight,  aud  suffer  for  his  sake. 

“ A sight  most  bright  thy  soul  shall  shortly  see. 

When  store  of  gloir*  thy  rich  reward  shall  be.”t 

The  pious  and  generous  feeling  breathed  in  these  lines  could 
not  fail  to  gratify  and  encourage  this  great  and  good  man  under 
his  sufferings.  In  a similar  strain  she  wrote  to  Mr.  William 
Rigg  of  Athernie,  bailie  of  Edinburgh,  who  was  imprisoned  in 
Blackness  castle,J  in  1624,  for  refusing  to  communicate  kneeling, 
after  that  practice  had  been  introduced  into  the  churches  of  the 
city,  reminding  him,  among  other  things,  by  a pleasing  and  in- 
genious antithetic  play  upon  the  name  and  gloom  of  his  prison, 
that  “ the  darkness  of  Blackness  was  not  the  blackness  of  dark- 
ness.”|1 

How  much  her  heart  v/ent  along  with  the  contendings  of  the 
presbyterians  against  the  attempts  of  James  YL,  to  establish  prel- 
acy and  its  ceremonies,  as  well  as  how  highly  she  was  respected, 
is  also  evident  from  the  following  incidental  allusion  to  her  in 
Kirkton’s  History.  After  stating  that  King  James  in  his  old  age 
undertook  a journey  to  Scotland,  to  establish  the  English  cere- 
monies, the  historian  goes  on  to  say : So  in  a corrupt  assembly 

“ Gloir,”  Scottice  for  “ glory.’' 

t Wodrow  MSS.,  Advocates’  library,  vol.  xxix.,  4to,  No.  4. 

t For  some  account  of  this  castle,  see  Life  of  Lady  Caldwell. 

11  Livingstone's  Characteristics  in  Select  Biographies,  printed  for  the  Wodrow 
Society,  vol.  i.,  p.  342. 


LADY  CULROSS, 


51 


at  Perth,  he  first  got  his  five  articles  concluded,  and  thereafter 
enacted  in  parliament  at  Edinburgh,  in  the  year  1621.  This 
parliament  was  always  by  common  consent  called  ‘ The  Black 
Parliament,’  not  only  because  of  the  grievous  acts  made  therein, 
but  also  because  of  a number  of  dismal  ominous  prodigies  which 
attended  it,  the  vote  itself  which  accomplished  the  design  of  the 
meeting  being  accompanied  with  a horrible  darkness,  thunder- 
claps, fire,  an  unheard-of  tempest,  to  the  astonishment  of  both 
parliament  and  city,  as  was  observed  by  all.  The  bishops  had 
procured  all  the  dissatisfied  ministers  to  be  discharged  the  town, 
so  divers  of  them,  upon  the  last  day  of  the  parliament,  went  out 
to  Sheens,  near  Edinburgh,  where  in  a friend’s  house  they  spent 
the  day  in  fasting  and  prayer,  expecting  the  event,  of  which  they 
were  as  then  uncertain.  After  the  aged  ministers  had  prayed  in 
the  morning  with  great  straitening,  at  length  a messenger  from 
the  city,  with  many  tears,  assured  them  all  was  concluded  con- 
trary to  their  request.  This  brought  them  all  into  a fit  of  heavi- 
ness, till  a godly  lady  there  present,  desired  Mr.  David  Dickson, 
being  at  that  time  present,  might  be  employed  to  pray,  and  though 
he  was  at  that  time  but  a young  man,  and  not  very  considerable 
for  his  character,  yet  was  he  so  wonderfully  assisted,  and  enlarged 
for  the  space  of  two  hours,  that  he  made  bold  to  prophesy,  that 
from  that  discouraging  day  and  forward,  the  work  of  the  gospel 
should  both  prosper  and  flourish  in  Scotland,  notwithstanding  all 
the  laws  made  to  the  prejudice  of  it.”*  Kirkton  has  not  recorded 
the  name  of  the  lady  who  suggested  that  Dickson  should  be  em- 
ployed in  prayer ; but  Livingstone,  who  narrates  the  same  inci- 
dent in  his  Memorable  Characteristics,  informs  us  that  Lady  Cul- 
ross  told  him  she  was  the  person  by  whom  the  suggestion  was 
made.f 

On  the  preaching  of  the  gospel.  Lady  Culross  attended  with 
exemplary  regularity.  She  was  also  much  in  the  practice  of 
frequenting  sacramental  solemnities.  In  those  days  the  dispen- 
sation of  the  Lord’s  supper  in  the  parishes  of  ministers  famed 
for  preaching  the  gospel,  was  flocked  to  by  vast  multitudes  from 
the  surrounding  districts,  so  that  often  many  thousands  were  as- 
sembled together  to  partake  of,  or  to  witness,  this  feast  of  love. 
These  were  interesting  occasions.  They  generally  took  place 
in  the  summer  season ; and  the  sermons  were  preached  in  the 
open  air.  The  solemnity  of  the  public  services  powerfully  en- 
gaged the  attention  as  well  as  affected  the  heart ; and  in  the  fer- 

♦ Kirkton’s  History,  pp.  16,  17,  18. 

t Select  Biographies,  printed  for  the  Wodrow  Society,  vol.  i.,  p.  317. 


U.  OF  ILL  LIB. 


52 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


vent  love  which  pervaded  the  private  Christian  fellowship  of  the 
people  with  one  another,  there  was  exhibited  a spectacle  on 
which  angels  might  have  looked  with  delight.  The  families  of 
the  parish,  on  whom  their  minister  was  careful  to  enforce  the 
duty  of  entertaining  strangers,  from  the  consideration  that  there- 
by some  have  entertained  angels  unawares,”  exemplified  an  open- 
hearted  and  openhanded  hospitality.  Many  of  them  accommoda- 
ted so  great  a number  that  their  domestic  circle  had  the  appear- 
ance of  a small  congregation,  and  it  seemed  as  if  the  primitive 
days  of  Christianity  had  returned,  when  the  disciples  had  all 
things  in  common.  Thus  Christians  from  different  parts  of  the 
country  became  acquainted  with  one  another,  fraternal  love  was 
cultivated,  and  by  their  religious  conversation  and  devotional  ex- 
ercises, they  strengthened  the  ardor  of  their  mutual  piety.  It  is 
no  wonder  that  such  seasons  were  looked  forward  to  with  eager 
expectation,  and  that  they  left  behind  them  a refreshing  and  an 
ever-cherished  remembrance.  Few  were  more  in  the  habit  of 
waiting  upon  these  observances  than  Lady  Culross ; and  when 
circumstances  prevented  her  from  being  present,  she  frequently 
secured  the  services  of  a friend  to  take  notes  of  the  sermons  for 
her  use.  She  indeed  appears  not  to  have  been  without  fears  of 
exceeding  in  her  attendance  on  sacraments  the  bounds  of  duty, 
and  of  thereby  neglecting  the  concerns  of  her  family  at  home. 
At  one  time  meeting  with  Euphan  M‘ Cullen,  a poor  but  pious  wo- 
man in  the  parish  of  Kilconquhar,  who  was  well  known  among  the 
devout  of  her  day,  and  who  is  said  to  have  seldom  prayed  with- 
out getting  a positive  answ^er.  Lady  Culross  requested  her  to  pray 
for  her  in  regard  to  the  outward  condition  of  her  family.  On 
being  inquired  at  what  answer  she  had  got,  the  good  old  woman 
replied  that  the  answer  was,  ‘‘  He  that  provideth  not  for  his  own 
house,  hath  denied  the  faith.”  At  which  Lady  Culross  said, 
‘‘  Now  you  have  killed  me  ; for  I go  to  preachings  and  commu- 
nions here  and  there,  neglecting  the  care  of  my  own  family.” 
Euphan  replies,  “ Mistress,  if  you  be  guilty  in  that  respect,  you 
have  reason  to  be  humbled  for  it ; but  it  was  not  said  in  that 
sense  to  me  ; but  the  Lord  said,  ‘ I that  have  said,  he  that  provi- 
deth not  for  his  own  is  worse  than  an  infidel,  will  not  I provide 
for  her  and  her  house,  seeing  she  is  mine  V ”* 

One  of  the  principal  places  which  Lady  Culross  frequented 
for  enjoying  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord’s  supper,  was  Lanark, 
the  minister  of  which  parish,  at  that  time,  was  Mr.  William  Liv- 
ingstone, the  father  of  the  celebrated  Mr.  John  Livingstone,  min- 
* Livingstone’s  Characteristics  in  Select  Biographies,  vol.  i.,  p.  339. 


LADY  CULROSS. 


53 


ister  of  Ancrum.  Residing  in  the  family  of  the  minister  of  the 
parish  on  these  solemnities,  and  also  occasionally  at  other  times, 
she  was  struck  with  the  promising  piety,  the  love  of  learning, 
and  the  suavity  of  manners,  which  characterized  young  Living- 
stone, and  seems  to  have  early  anticipated  his  future  eminence 
as  a minister  of  the  gospel,  as  she  did  that  of  Mr.  David  Dick- 
son, when  an  obscure  young  man  ; for  among  other  gifts  which 
distinguished  her,  she  was  an  acute  judge  of  both  character  and 
talents.  Livingstone,  on  the  other  hand,  formed  a high  estimate 
of  her  Christian  excellence,  as  well  as  of  her  intellectual  endow- 
ments ; and  he  records  in  his  life  the  benefit  he  derived  from  her 
religious  conversation  and  demeanor,  during  those  occasions  on 
which  she  was  a guest  in  his  father’s  house.*  An  intimate 
Christian  friendship  thus  came  to  be  formed  between  her  and 
Livingstone,  which  lasted  till  her  death ; and  an  epistolary  in- 
tercourse was  maintained  between  them.  After  the  grave  had 
closed  over  her,  Livingstone  continued  to  retain  a lively  and 
grateful  recollection  of  her  talents  and  piety.  In  his  Memorable 
Characteristics  he  has  given  her  a place  among  the  “ professors 
of  the  church  of  Scotland,  of  his  acquaintance,  who  were  emi- 
nent for  grace  and  gifts  and  he  thus  describes  her : “ Of  all 
that  ever  I saw,  she  was  most  unwearied  in  religious  exercises  ; 
and  the  more  she  attained  access  to  God  therein,  she  hungered 
the  more.  At  the  communion  in  Shotts,  in  June,  1630,  the  night 
after  the  sabbath  was  spent  in  prayer  by  a great  many  Christians 
in  a large  room,  where  her  bed  was  ; and  in  the  morning  all  go- 
ing apart  for  their  private  devotion,  she  went  into  the  bed,  and 
drew  the  curtains,  that  she  might  set  herself  to  prayer.  William 
Rigg,  of  Athernie,  coming  into  the  room,  and  hearing  her  have 
great  motion  upon  her,  although  she  spoke  not  out,  he  desired  her 
to  speak  out,  saying  that  there  was  none  in  the  room  but  him  and 
her  woman,  as  at  that  time  there  was  no  other.  She  did  so,  and 
the  door  being  opened,  the  room  filled  full.  She  continued  in 
prayer,  with  wonderful  assistance  for  large  three  hours’  time.”t 

The  account  here  given  of  Lady  Culross’s  ardent  devotional 
feeling,  as  it  appeared  at  the  communion  in  Shotts,  will  perhaps 
excite  the  ridicule  of  some,  who  may  be  disposed  to  regard  her 
as  actuated  more  by  ostentation  and  enthusiasm,  than  by  modest, 
sincere,  and  enlightened  piety.  But  a slight  attention  to  the  sim- 
plicity of  the  times  in  which  she  lived,  will  show  how  little 
ground  there  is  for  pronouncing  so  harsh  a censure.  More  prim- 

Life  of  Mr.  John  Livingstone  in  Select  Biographies,  vol.  i.,  p.  130. 
t Livingstone’s  Memorable  Characteristics  in  Select  Biographies,  vol.  i.,  p.  346. 


54 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  TOVENANT. 


itive  in  their  manners  and  habits  than  in  the  present  day,  the  peo- 
ple of  those  times  are  not  to  be  judged  of  by  modern  customs, 
nor  condemned  for  that  which,  though  unfit  for  imitation  in  the 
altered  state  of  society,  conveyed  to  their  minds  nothing  incon- 
sistent with  true  delicacy.  And  before  we  censure  her  unusual 
earnestness  in  prayer,  and  the  uncommon  length  of  time  during 
which  the  exercise  was  continued,  let  us  remember  that  in  that 
age  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit  were  poured  out  upon  the 
good  in  no  ordinary  measure,  imparting  to  them  a high  degree 
of  spiritual  vitality,  and  giving  a peculiar  depth  and  fervor  to  their 
piety. 

This  consideration  alone,  not  to  mention  other  considera- 
tions, will  serve  to  explain  why  public  prayers  and  sermons,  as 
well  as  social  prayer,  protracted  to  an  extent  to  which  the  patience 
of  few  hearers  would  now  be  equal,  so  far  from  fatiguing,  seemed 
only  to  refresh  and  invigorate  our  hardier  and  more  devout  an- 
cestors. Nor  is  it  to  be  forgotten,  should  we  feel  a tendency  to 
find  fault  with  these  simple  annals  of  primitive  piety,  that  on  the 
very  day  on  which  this  lady  was  engaged  in  the  manner  de- 
scribed, there  took  place  such  a remarkable  outpouring  of  the 
Spirit  at  the  kirk  of  Shotts,  as  has  hardly  been  equalled  since  the 
days  of  the  apostles  ; and  who  can  tell  how-  far  this  was  vouch- 
safed in  answer  to  the  prayers  of  this  devout  woman — as  well  as 
in  answer  to  the  prayers  of  those  who  passed  the  night  between 
the  sabbath  and  Monday  morning  in  this  exercise — poured  forth 
with  great  earnestness  and  importunity  to  Him,  who  has  prom- 
ised the  effusion  of  the  Spirit  upon  the  church  as  the  fruit  of  be- 
lieving prayer  ? It  is  also  worthy  of  notice,  that,  as  has  been 
previously  stated,  it  was  at  her  suggestion  that  the  ministers  as- 
sisting in  the  celebration  of  the  Lord’s  supper,  on  that  occasion, 
laid  the  work  of  addressing  the  people  on  the  Monday,  upon  Mr. 
John  Livingstone,  whose  discourse  was  the  instrument,  in  the 
hand  of  the  Spirit,  of  turning  so  many  from  darkness  to  light, 
and  from  the  power  of  Satan  unto  God. 

These  fruits  of  Mr.  Livingstone’s  ministry  served  to  increase 
the  high  estimation  in  which  Lady  Culross  held  him,  as  an  em- 
bassador of  Christ ; and  upon  the  death  of  Mr.  Robert  Colvill, 
minister  of  Culross,  in  1630,*  she  was  very  desirous  of  having 
him  settled  minister  of  that  parish.  This  appears  from  a letter 
she  wrote  to  him,  dated  25th  March,  1631.  “I  confess,”  says 

On  December  5,  1640  [ 1630  ?],  this  minister's  son,  Mr.  Robert  Colvill,  in  Cul- 
ross, was  restored  heir  to  his  father  in  the  lands  of  Nether  Kynnedder,  in  the  regal 
ity  of  Dunfermline.  Inquis.  Retor.  Abbrev.  Fife,  No.  601. 


LADY  CULROSS. 


55 


she,  ‘‘  it  is  no  time  for  me  to  quarrel*  now,  when  God  is  quarrel- 
ling with  us,  and  has  taken  away  our  dear  pastor,  who  has 
preached  the  word  of  God  among  ns  almost  forty  years,  plainly 
and  powerfully : a sore  stroke  to  this  congregation,  and  chiefly 
to  me,  to  whom  he  was  not  only  a pastor  and  a brother,  but,  under 
God,  a husband  and  a father  to  my  children.  Next  his  own  fam- 
ily I have  the  greatest  loss.  Your  sudden  voyage  has  troubled 
me  more  since  than  ever,  and  many  of  this  congregation,  who 
would  have  preferred  you  to  others,  and  would  have  used  all 
means  possible  if  you  had  been  in  this  land ; but  now  I fear  the 
charm  is  spilt : yet  you  can  not  go  out  of  my  mind,  nor  out  of 
the  mind  of  some  others,  who  wish  you  here  with  our  hearts  to 
supply  that  place,  and  pray  for  it,  if  it  be  the  Lord’s  will,  though 
by  appearance  there  is  no  possibility  of  it,  for  I think  they  have 
agreed  with  another ; yet  if  God  have  a work,  he  can  bring  it 
about,  and  work  contrary  to  all  means,  for  there  is  nothing  too 
hard  for  him.”t  The  wish  expressed  in  this  letter  was  not  how- 
ever gratified.  The  parish  of  Culross  was  supplied  with  another 
minister,  Mr.  John  Duncan, | and  Livingstone  remained  in  Ire- 
land, but  was  soon  after,  in  consequence  of  his  nonconformity, 
first  suspended  from  the  exercise  of  his  ministry,  then  deposed, 
and  next  excommunicated  by  the  bishop  of  Down,  and  ultimately 
forced  to  leave  the  country. 

It  has  been  formerly  said  that  Lady  Culross  and  Livingstone 
maintained  an  epistolary  correspondence.  A number  of  her  let- 
ters to  him  have  been  lately  printed.  Written  in  a homely  and 
quaint  phraseology  peculiar  to  that  age,  they  yet  contain  nothing 
at  variance  with  genuine  good  taste  or  sobriety  of  feeling.  Char- 
acterized throughout  by  the  familiar,  they  occasionally  indulge 
in  the  facetious,  and  their  prevailing  spirit  is  that  of  fervent  piety, 
and  an  ardent  attachment  to  the  public  cause,  for  which  presby- 
terians  were  then  contending,  combined  with  a solid  and  enlight- 
ened judgment.  As  a specimen  of  her  skill  and  ability  in 
encouraging  the  ministers  of  the  gospel  under  their  sufferings 
for  the  sake  of  Christ,  a part  of  her  letter  to  Livingstone  on  the 
occasion  of  his  being  suspended  from  the  ministry,  dated  ‘‘  Hal- 
hill,  10th  December,  1631,”  may  be  quoted.  It  is  headed  with 
the  following  text  of  Scripture,  “ Surely  the  rage  of  man  shall 
turn  to  thy  praise  ; the  remnant  of  their  rage  wilt  thou  restrain 

^ In  the  preceding-  part  of  the  letter  she  had  been  blaming  Livingstone,  who  had 
gone  to  Irela.nd  in  the  autumn  of  the  year  1630,  for  his  haste  in  leaving  Scotland. 

t Letters  from  Lady  Culross  to  Mr.  John  Livingstone,  in  Select  Biographies, 
printed  for  the  Wodrow  Society,  vol.  i.,  p.  358. 

t Records  of  the  Synod  of  Fife,  p.  236. 


66 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


and  it  begins  as  follows  : ‘‘  My  very  worthy  and  dear  brother,  I 
received  your  letter,  and  have  no  time  to  answer  you  as  I would. 
I thank  the  Lord  who  upholds  you  in  all  your  trials  and  tempta- 
tions. It  is  good  for  you  to  be  holden  in  exercise,  otherwise  I 
would  suspect  that  all  were  not  well  with  you.  God  is  faithful, 
as  you  find  by  experience,  and  will  not  try  you  above  your 
strength.  Courage,  dear  brother,  all  is  in  love,  all  works  together 
for  the  best.  You  must  be  hewn  and  hammered  down,  and 
dressed  and  prepared  before  you  be  a living  stone  fit  for  his  build- 
ing. And  if  he  be  minded  to  make  you  meet  to  help  to  repair 
the  ruins  of  his  house,  you  must  look  for  other  manner  of  strokes 
than  you  have  yet  felt.  You  must  feel  your  own  weakness  that 
you  may  be  humbled  and  cast  down  before  him,  that  so  you  may 
pity  poor  weak  ones  that  are  borne  down  with  infirmities.  And 
when  you  are  laid  low  and  vile  in  your  own  eyes,  then  will  he 
raise  you  up,  and  refresh  you  with  some  blinks  of  his  favorable 
countenance,  that  you  may  be  able  to  comfort  others  with  those 
consolations  wherewith  you  have  been  comforted  by  him.  This 
you  know  by  some  experience,  blessed  be  God  ! And  as  strength 
and  grace  increase,  look  for  stronger  trials,  fightings  without, 
and  fears  within,  the  devil  and  his  instruments  against  you,  and 
your  Lord  hiding  his  face.  [You  are]  deeply,  almost  over- 
whelmed with  troubles  and  terrors  ; and  yet  out  of  all  this  misery, 
he  is  working  some  gracious  work  of  mercy  for  the  glory  of  his 
great  name,  the  salvation  and  sanctification  of  your  own  soul, 
and  for  the  comfort  of  his  distressed  children  there  or  here,  or 
both,  as  pleases  him.  Up  your  heart  then,  and  prepare  for  the 
battle  ! Put  on  the  whole  armor  of  God  ; though  you  be  weak, 
you  have  a strong  Captain,  whose  power  is  made  perfect  in 
weakness,  and  whose  grace  is  sufficient  for  you.  What  you 
want  in  yourself  you  have  in  him,  who  is  given  to  you  of  God  to 
be  your  wisdom,  righteousness,  sanctification,  and  redemption, 
your  treasure  and  treasurer,  who  keeps  all  in  store.  . . . Since 
he  has  put  his  work  in  your  weak  hands,  look  not  for  long  ease 
here  ; you  must  feel  the  weight  of  that  worthy  calling,  and  be 
holden  under  with  the  sense  of  your  own  weakness,  that  he  may 
kythe  * his  strength  in  due  time  ; — a weak  man  and  a strong 
God,  who  will  not  fail  nor  forsake  you,  but  will  furnish  strength 
and  gifts,  and  grace,  according  to  that  employment  that  he  puts 
in  your  hands.  The  pain  is  but  for  a moment,  the  pleasure  ever- 
lasting. The  battle  is  but  short,  your  Captain  fights  for  you, 
therefore  the  victory  is  certain,  and  the  reward  glorious.  A 
* “ Kythe,”  Scotiice  for  “ show.” 


LADY  CULROSS. 


67 


crown  and  a kingdom  are  worth  fighting  for.  Blessed  be  his 
name  who  fights  all  our  battles,  and  works  all  our  works  for  us ! 
Since  all  is  in  Christ,  and  he  ours,  what  would  we  have  more 
but  thankful  hearts,  and  grace  to  honor  him  in  life  and  death, 
who  is  our  advantage  in  life  and  death,  who  guides  with  his 
counsel,  and  will  bring  us  to  his  glory.  To  him  be  all  honor, 
power,  and  praise,  now  and  for  ever.  Amen.”* 

Lady  Culross  was  also  the  friend  and  correspondent  of  Mr. 
Samuel  Rutherford,  some  of  whose  letters  to  her  in  1636  and 
1637  are  preserved  in  the  published  collection  of  his  letters.  She 
was  then  considerably  advanced  in  years,  but  had  seen  no  reason 
for  changing  the  sentiments  on  ecclesiastical  questions  which 
she  had  embraced  in  early  life ; nor  had  her  zeal  in  adhering  to 
them  abated.  When  Rutherford  was  summoned  to  appear  be- 
fore the  court  of  high  commission  at  Edinburgh  in  1636,  more 
than  thirty  years  had  passed  over  her  head  since  she  addressed 
Mr.  John  Welsh  in  the  prison  of  Blackness  ; but  the  sufferings 
of  good  men  in  the  cause  of  religious  freedom  still  made  her 
heart  swell  with  emotions  of  sympathy ; and  hearing  of  the  un- 
just proceedings  instituted  against  the  minister  of  Anwoth,  she 
addressed  to  him  a letter  giving  expression  to  her  sentiments 
and  feelings.  Rutherford  lost  no  time  in  replying,  and  his  an- 
swer is  written  with  all  the  confidence  of  Christian  friendship.! 

The  best  of  God’s  people  have  sometimes  been  unequally 
yoked,  and  their  children,  instead  of  proving  a comfort  to  them, 
have  been  the  source  of  their  most  poignant  grief.  In  these  re- 
spects Lady  Culross  was  severely  tried.  Writing  to  Livingstone 
from  Halhill,  10th  of  December,  1631,  she  says  : “ Guiltiness  in 

me  and  mine  is  my  greatest  cross My  great  temptation 

now  is,  that  I fear  my  prayers  are  turned  into  sin.  I find  and 
see  the  clean  contrary  in  me  and  mine,  at  least  some  of  them.^ 
Samuel  is  going  to  the  college  in  St.  Andrews  to  a worthy  mas- 
ter there,  but  I fear  him  deadly.  I depend  not  on  creatures. 
Pray  earnestly  for  a blessing.  He  whom  you  know  is  like  to 
overturn  all,  and  has  broken  all  bands — Lord,  pity  him  ! There 
was  some  beginning  of  order,  but  all  is  wrong  again,  for  the  death 
of  his  brother  makes  him  take  liberty,  so  I have  a double  loss.”|| 

Select  Biographies,  vol.  i.,  pp.  361, 362.  f Rutherford’s  Letters,  pp.  108,  109. 

t She  had  a daughter  to  whom  this  complaint  did  not  apply.  In  a letter  to  her 

from  Aberdeen,  in  1637,  Rutherford  writes:  “Your  son-in-law,  W G , is 

now  truly  honored  for  his  Lord  and  Master’s  cause.  . . . He  is  strong  in  the  Lord, 
as  he  hath  written  to  me,  and  his  wife  is  his  encourager,  which  should  make  you 
rejoice.” — Rutherford’s  Letters,  p.  437. 

II  Select  Biographies,  vol.  i.,  pp.  362,  363. 


58 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


It  has  been  said  that  she  “ here  most  probably  refers  to  her  son 
James,  whose  conduct  often  occasioned  great  anxiety  to  his  moth- 
er.”* We  are  rather  inclined  to  think  that  the  reference  is  to 
her  husband. t Five  or  six  years  after  this,  she  complains,  in  a 
letter  to  Rutherford,  of  the  heavy  trial  she  met  with  from  the 
misconduct  of  one  of  her  sons,  who,  so  far  from  proving  “ a 
restorer  of  her  life  and  a nourisher  of  her  old  age,”  was  to  her  a 
source  of  the  bitterest  sorrow.  Rutherford,  writing  from  Aber- 
deen in  1637,  says  in  reply  : “As  for  your  son  who  is  your  grief, 
your  Lord  waited  on  you  and  me  till  we  were  ripe,  and  brought 
us  in.  It  is  your  part  to  pray,  and  wait  upon  him.  When  he  is 
ripe,  he  will  be  spoken  for.  Who  can  command  our  Lord’s  wind 
to  blow  ? I know  that  it  shall  be  your  good  in  the  latter  end. 
That  is  one  of  your  waters  to  Heaven  ye  could  not  go  about : 
there  are  fewer  behind.  I remember  you  and  him,  and  yours  as 
I am  able.”J 

Whether  this  letter  refers  to  her  third  son  Samuel,  or  to  an- 
other of  her  sons,  we  are  unable  to  determine.  It  is,  however, 
certain  that  Samuel  was  far  from  embracing  the  principles  or 
following  the  example  of  his  mother.  He  was  the  author  of  the 
piece  of  Scottish  “ Hudibras”  entitled  “ Mock  Poem,  or  Whigs’ 
Supplication,  in  two  parts,”  printed  at  London  in  1681  ; a pro- 
duction which  could  not  have  been  written  by  a man  of  strong 
sympathies.  Its  evident  object  is  to  provoke  the  mirth  of  the 
reader,  by  setting  forth,  in  a ludicrous  light,  the  sufferings  en- 
dured by  the  presbyterians  under  Charles  IL,  and  their  endeav- 
ors to  obtain  the  redress  of  their  grievances.  This  betrays  both 
bad  taste  and  want  of  feeling.  If  for  men  to  make  themselves 
merry,  in  any  case,  over  scenes  of  oppression  and  wretchedness, 
is  inconsistent  with  generous  and  humane  feeling,  it  is  evident 
that  to  make  the  barbarities  exercised  toward  our  presbyterian 
ancestors  the  means  of  ministering  to  our  gayety,  abstracting  alto- 
gether from  the  consideration  of  their  principles,  can  on  no  ground 
be  vindicated.  It  is,  in  fact,  nothing  better  than  would  be  the 
spectacle  of  a man,  who,  while  looking  on  a fellow-creature  un- 
der the  rack,  amused  himself  by  mimicking  or  by  describing,  in 
ludicrous  phrase,  the  writhings  and  convulsions  of  the  sufferer. 
Samuel  Colvill  was  also  the  author  of  a work  entitled  “ The 
Grand  Impostor  discovered  : or,  an  Historical  Dispute  of  the  Pa- 
pacy and  Popish  Religion;  1.  Demonstrating  the  newness  of 
both;  2.  By  what  Artifices  they  are  maintained;  3.  The  Con- 

^ Select  Biographies,  vol.  i.,  pp.  362,  363.  t See  p.  55. 

i Rutherford’s  Letters,  p.  437. 


LADY  CULROSS. 


59 


tradictions  of  the  Roman  Doctors  in  defending  them.”  It  was 
printed  at  Edinburgh  in  1673,  and  is  dedicated  to  the  duke  of 
Lauderdale.  In  the  dedication  the  author  states  that  he  had  the 
honor  to  be  the  duke’s  con-disciple,  adding,  “ at  which  time  it 
did  not  obscurely  appear  what  your  grace  would  prove  afterward. 
Also  having  presented  several  trifles  to  your  grace,  at  yoUr  two 
times  being  in  Scotland,  you  seemed  to  accept  of  them  with  a 
favorable  countenance,  which  encouraged  me  to  trouble  your  grace 
afresh.” 

As  we  have  already  seen.  Lady  Culross  cultivated  a taste  for 
poetry.  One  of  her  poetical  effusions,  in  particular,  attracted  the 
admiration  of  her  friends,  and  was  published  at  their  request  so 
early  as  1603.  It  is  a thin  quarto,  consisting  of  sixteen  pages, 
and  is  printed  in  black  letters,  with  the  following  title  : “ Ane 
Godlie  Dreame,  compylit  in  Scottish  Meter,  be  M.  M.  Gentle- 
woman in  Culros,  at  the  Requeist  of  her  Freindes.  Introite  per 
angustam  portam,  nam  lata  est  via  quee  ducit  ad  interitum.*  Ed- 
inburgh : Printed  be  Robert  Charteris,  1603.”  In  this  poem,  as 
in  Runyan’s  immortal  work,  “ The  Pilgrim’s  Progress,”  the  prog- 
ress and  conclusion  of  the  Christian’s  life  is  described  under  the 
simnlitude  of  a journey.  Written  with  much  liveliness  of  fancy 
and  description,  and  with  a fluency  of  versification  superior  to 
most  of  the  poetical  compositions  of  that  age,  it  gained  her  at  the 
time  considerable  reputation  ; and,  in  the  opinion  of  competent 
judges,  it  establishes  her  claims  to  poetical  powers  of  no  mean 
order.  As  it  is  now  rarely  to  be  met  with,  a brief  view  of  its 
subject-matter  may  be  given,  and  a few  passage^  may  be  quoted 
as  a specimen  of  the  poetry  of  that  period.  It  is  introduced  with 
a description  of  the  heaviness  of  heart  which  the  writer  felt,  from 
her  solitary  musings  on  the  depraved  state  of  the  world  in  her 
day,  which  she  calls  this  false  and  iron  age,”  and  on  the  bias 
of  her  own  heart  to  sin.  Troubled  with  a train  of  reflections  on 
these  and  similar  topics,  she  endeavored  to  pray ; but  utterance 
failed  her,  and  she  could  only  sigh,  until  relieved  by  the  effusion 
of  tears,  when  she  poured  forth  her  lamentations.  Thus  tran- 
quillized, she  retired  to  bed,  and  falling  asleep,  dreamed  that  her 
grief  and  lamentation  were  renewed,  and  that  with  tears  she  be- 
sought God  for  succor  : — 

“ Lord  Jesus  come  (said  I)  and  end  my  grief, 

My  sp'rit  is  vexed,  the  captive  would  be  free ; 

All  vice  abounds,  oh  send  us  some  relief! 

I loathe  to  live,  I wish  dissolved  to  be." 

* That  is,  Enter  ye  in  at  the  strait  gate,  for  broad  is  the  way  that  leadeth  to  de- 
struction." 


60 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


While  with  sighs  and  sobs  she  was  pouring  forth  her  com- 
plaint, she  thought  there  appeared  to  her  an  angel  of  a shining 
countenance  and  loving  looks,  who  entreated  her  to  tell  him  the 
cause  of  her  grief.  Her  reply  is  couched  in  these  lines  : — 

“ I sighed  again,  and  said  : ‘ Alas  for  me  ! 

My  grief  is  great,  I can  it  not  declare: 

Into  this  earth  I wander  to  and  fro, 

A pilgrim  poor,  consumed  with  sighing  sair. 

My  sin,  alas  ! increases  mair  and  mair — 

I loathe  my  life,  I irk  to  wander  here  : 

I long  for  heaven,  my  heritage  is  there ; 

I long  to  live  with  my  Redeemer  here.’  ” 

The  angel,  pleased  with  this  account  of  her  grief,  bade  her  rise 
up  immediately  and  follow  him,  promising  to  be  her  guide,  and 
commanding  her  to  refrain  from  her  tears,  and  to  trust  in  his 
word  and  strength.  By  his  endearing  accents,  and  at  the  sight 
of  his  fair  countenance,  her  weary  spirit  revived,  and  she  hum- 
bly desired  him  to  tell  her  his  name.  To  which  he  answered 
(for  he  was  no  other  person  than  the  Angel  of  the  covenant,  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ)  that  he  was  her  God,  adding,  in  amplification 
of  the  gracious  relation  in  which  he  stood  to  her,  that  he  was 
‘‘  the  way,  the  truth,  and  life,”  her  “ spouse,”  her  “joy,  rest,  and 
peace  ;”  and  then  exhorting  her  thus  : — 

“ ‘ Rise  up  anon,  and  follow  after  me  : 

I shall  lead  thee  into  thy  dwelling-place — 

The  land  of  rest  thou  long’st  so  sore  to  see ; 

1 am  thy  Lord,  that  soon  shall  end  thy  race.’  ” 

Thanking  him  for  his  encouraging  words,  she  declared  her 
readiness  to  follow  him,  and  expressed  an  earnest  desire  speed- 
ily to  see  “ the  land  of  rest”  which  he  promised  her.  He  an- 
swered that  the  way  to  it  was  strait,  that  she  had  yet  far  to  go, 
and  that  before  reaching  it  she  behooved  to  pass  through  great 
and  numerous  dangers,  which  would  try  her  “ feeble  flesh.”  She 
admitted  that  her  flesh  was  weak,  but  hoped  that  her  spirit  was 
willing,  and  besought  him  to  be  her  guide  ; in  which  case  she 
would  not  be  discouraged.  She  next  gives  the  history  of  her 
journey  under  his  conduct : — 

“ Then  up  I rose  and  made  no  more  delay — 

My  feeble  arm  about  his  arm  I cast : 

He  went  before  and  still  guide  the  way; 

Though  I was  weak,  my  sp’rit  did  follow  fast — 

Through  moss  and  mires,  through  ditches  deep  we  passed, 

Through  pricking  thorns,  through  water,  and  through  fire « 

Through  dreadful  dens,  which  made  my  heart  aghast, 

He  tee  me  up  when  I began  to  tire.” 


LADY  CULROSS. 


61 


After  further  describing  herself  and  her  guide  as  climbing  high 
mountains,  passing  through  vast  deserts,  wading  through  great 
waters,  and  wending  their  way  through  wild  woods,  in  which, 
through  the  obstruction  of  briers,  it  would  have  been  impossible 
for  her,  without  his  assistance,  to  have  proceeded,  she  says  : — 

“ Forward  we  passed  on  narrow  brigs  of  tree, 

O’er  waters  great  that  hideously  did  roar; 

There  lay  below  that  fearful  was  to  see — 

Most  ugly  beasts  that  gaped  to  devour  ! 

My  head  grew  light  and  troubled  wondrous  sore; 

My  heart  did  fear,  my  feet  began  to  slide; 

But  when  I cried,  he  heard  me  ever  more, 

And  held  me  up — O blessed  be  my  guide  !” 

• 

Escaping  these  dangers,  and  exhausted  through  fatigue,  she  at 
length  thought  of  sitting  down  to  rest ; but  he  told  her  that  she 
must  proceed  on  her  journey  ; and  accordingly,  though  weak,  she 
rose  up  at  his  command.  For  her  encouragement,  he  pointed  to 
that  delightful  place  after  which  she  aspired,  apparently  at  hand  ; 
and  looking  up,  she  beheld  the  celestial  mansion,  glistening  like 
burnished  gold  and  the  brightest  silver,  with  its  stately  towers 
rising  full  in  her  view.  As  she  gazed,  the  splendor  of  the  sight 
dazzled  her  eyes  ; and  in  an  ecstasy  of  joy  she  besought  her  guide 
to  conduct  her  there  at  once,  and  by  a direct  course.  But  he 
told  her  that,  though  it  was  at  no  great  distance,  yet  the  way  to 
it  was  extremely  difficult,  and,  encouraging  her  not  to  faint,  bade 
her  cleave  fast  to  him.  Having  described  the  difficulties  and 
dangers  she  subsequently  met  with  in  the  course  of  her  journey, 
she  concludes  the  poem  with  an  explanation  of  the  spiritual  mean- 
ing of  the  dream.  The  following  is  one  of  the  concluding  stan- 
zas : — 

*•'  Rejoice  in  God,  let  not  your  courage  fail. 

Ye  chosen  saints  that  are  afflicted  here: 

Though  Satan  rage,  he  never  shall  -prevail — 

Fight  to  the  end  and  stoutly  persevere. 

Your  God  is  true,  your  blood  is  to  him  dear. 

Fear  not  the  way  since  Christ  is  your  convoy: 

When  clouds  are  past,  the  weather  will  grow  clear ; 

Ye  sow  in  tears,  but  ye  shall  reap  in  joy.” 

To  the  “ Godly  Dream”  there  is  added  a short  poem,  entitled 
“A  Comfortable  Song,  to  the  Tune  of  ‘Shall  I let  her  go?’” 
which  we  here  subjoin  : — 

“Away,  vain  world,  bewitcher  of  my  heart ! 

My  sorrow  shows  my  sins  make  me  to  smart : 

Yet  will  I not  despair,  but  to  my  God  repair — 

He  has  mercy  aye,  therefore  will  I pray ; 

He  has  mercy  aye,  and  loves  me. 

Though  by  his  troubling  hand  he  proves  me. 


62 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


Away ! away ! too  long  tliou  hast  me  snared ; 

I will  not  tyne  more  time  ; I am  prepared 
Thy  subtle  slight  to  flee  ; thou  hast  deceived  me : 

Though  they  sw'eetly  smile,  smoothly  they  beguile; 
Though  they  sweetly  smile,  suspect  them — 

The  simple  sort  they  syle,"^  reject  them. 

“ Once  more,  away  ! shows  loath  the  world  to  leave; 

Bids  oft  away  with  her  that  holds  me  slave: 

Loath  I am  to  forego  that  sweet,  alluring  foe. 

Since  thy  ways  are  vain,  shall  I them  retain  ? 

Since  thy  ways  are  vain,  I quit  thee — 

Thy  pleasure  shall  no  more  delight  me. 

“ A thousand  times  away  ! Ah  ! stay  no  more  ; 

Sweet  Christ,  me  save,  lest  subtle  sin  devour : 

Without  thy  helping  hand,  I have  no  strength  to  stand. 
Lest  I turn  aside,  let  thy  grace  me  guide : 

Lest  I turn  aside,  draw  near  me : 

And  w'hen  I call  for  help,  Lord ! hear  me. 

“ What  shall  Ido?  are  all  my  pleasures  past  ? 

Shall  worldly  lusts  now  take  their  leave  at  last  ? 

Yea,  Ciirist  these  eartlJy  toys  shall  turn  in  heavenly  joys 
Let  the  world  be  gone,  I will  love  Christ  alone, 

Let  the  world  be  gone,  I care  not  : 

Christ  is  my  love  alone,  I fear  not.” 


LADY  JANE  CAMPBELL, 

VISCOUNTESS  OF  KENMURE. 

Lady  Jane  Campbell,  Viscountess  of  Kenmure,  was  one 
of  the  most  eminent  of  the  religious  ladies  who  lived  during  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  her  name  is  well  known  to  the  religious 
people  of  Scotland.  No  female  name  of  that  period  has  indeed  been 
more  familiar  to  them  than  hers  for  nearly  two  centuries.  Nor 
is  this  owing  to  her  having  left  behind  her  any  autobiography  or 
diary  containing  a record  of  the  Christian  graces  which  adorned 
her  character,  or  of  the  remarkable  events  of  the  times  in  which 
she  lived  ; for  nothing  of  this  kind  is  known  to  have  ever  existed. 
It  is  the  letters  of  the  celebrated  Mr.  Samuel  Rutherford — whose 
wonderful  effusions  of  sanctified  genius — which  have  immor- 
talized her  memory,  and  made  her  name  familiar  to  the  pious 
peasantry  of  our  land.  Who  is  there  that  has  read  the  beautiful 
letters  addressed  to  her  by  that  eminent  man,  who  has  not  felt 
the  attractions  of  her  character  ? although  it  is  only  indirectly 

^ “ To  sile”  or  ‘‘syle,”  Scot,  for  “ to  cover”  or  “ to  blindfold.” 


LADY  KENMURE. 


63 


that  we  can  deduce  from  them  the  elements  which  rendered  it  so 
attractive.* 

Lady  Jane  Campbell  was  the  third  daughter  of  Archibald,  sev- 
enth earl  of  Argyll,  by  his  first  wife,  Anne,  fifth  daughter  of  Wil- 
liam, sixth  earl  of  Morton,  of  the  house  of  Lochlevin.f  The 
precise  date  of  her  birth  is  uncertain,  but  her  parents  were  mar- 
ried before  October,  1594.  Descended  on  both  the  father’s  and 
the  mother’s  side  from  ancient  and  noble  families  of  great  dis- 
tinction, she  was  particularly  honored  in  her  paternal  ancestors, 
who  were  renowned  for  the  zeal  with  which  they  maintained  the 
cause  of  the  Reformation.  Her  great  grandfather,  Archibald, 
fourth  earl  of  Argyll,  who  in  extreme  old  age  espoused,  among 
the  first  of  his  rank,  protestant  principles,  was  one  of  the  lords 
of  the  congregation  who  subscribed  the  ‘‘  Band,”  dated  Edinburgh, 
December  3,  1557,  the  first  covenant  or  engagement  of  the  Scot- 
tish reformers  for  their  mutual  defence  and  on  his  death -bed, || 
he  left  it  as  his  dying  charge  to  his  son  Archibald,  Lord  Lorn, 
afterward  fifth  earl  of  Argyll,  “ that  he  should  study  to  set  for- 
ward the  public  and  true  preaching  of  the  Evangell  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  to  suppress  all  superstition  and  idolatry  to  the  utter- 
most of  his  power. This  son  who  was  the  granduncle  of  the 
subject  of  this  notice,  had  previously  embraced  the  Reformation 
cause,  which  he  promoted  with  all  the  ardor  of  youthful  zeal,  and 
he  too  was  one  of  the  lords  of  the  congregation  who  subscribed 
the  famous  Band,”  to  which  allusion  has  just  now  been  made. 
Of  her  mother  little  is  known.  To  her.  Sir  William  Alexander, 
afterward  earl  of  Stirling,  inscribed  his  Aurora,  in  1604,  and  he 
gallantly  says  of  his  amatory  fancies,  that  “ as  they  were  the  fruit 
of  beauty,  so  shall  Aiey  be  sacrificed  as  oblations  to  beauty.”  It 
may  also  be  stated  that  Park,  in  his  edition  of  Walpole’s  Royal 
and  Noble  Authors,  has  a portrait  of  her  mother,  taken  from  a 
painting  in  the  collection  of  Lady  Mary  Coke.^  Of  this  parent 
she  had  the  misfortune  to  be  deprived  in  her  tender  years.  Her 
father  married  for  his  second  wife,  on  the  30th  of  November, 
1610,  in  the  parish  church  of  St.  Botolph,  Bishopsgate,  London, 
Anne,  daughter  of  Sir  William  Cornwallis  of  Brome,  ancestor 

* Rutherford  was  singularly  free  from  the  vice  of  flattery  ; and  this  greatly  en- 
hances the  value  of  the  illustrations  of  character  which  maybe  derived  from  his  let- 
ters. ‘‘  I had  rather  commend  grace  than  gracious  persons/'  says  he,  to  Lady  Ken- 
mure,  in  his  Dedication  of  his  “ Trial  and  Triumph  of  Faith*'  to  her;  and  on  this 
principle  he  proceeded  in  writing  his  letters. 

t Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  i , p.  94.  In  vol.  ii.,  p.  274,  her  mother  is  called  Agnes. 

t Knox’s  History  of  the  Reformation  in  Scotland,  Wodrow  Society  edition,  vol. 
i.,  pp.  273,  274.  II  He  died  toward  the  close  of  the  year  1558. 

j Knox’s  History,  &c.,  vol.  i.,  p.  290.  ITVol.  v.,  p.  64. 


64 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


of  Marquis  Cornwallis,  by  Lucy,  daughter  of  John  (Nevill),  Lord 
Latimer.  About  eight  years  after  this  marriage,  he  went  to  Spain, 
and  having  entered  into  the  service  of  Philip  III.,  distinguished 
himself  in  the  wars  of  that  monarch  against  the  states  of  Hol- 
land. Through  the  influence  of  his  second  wife,  who  was  a pa- 
pist, he  embraced  the  popish  religion,  although  he  had,  for  the 
best  part  of  his  life,  been  a warm  and  zealous  protestant.  He 
returned  to  England  in  1638,  and  died  at  London  the  same  year, 
aged  about  sixty-two.* 

In  her  early  years.  Lady  Jane  was  of  a delicate  constitution, 
and  she  suffered  much  from  bodily  affliction.  It  was  no  doubt 
hard  to  human  nature  to  languish  at  a period  of  life  when  she 
might  naturally  have  looked  for  health  and  enjoyment ; but  as  we 
may  gather  from  Mr.  Samuel  Rutherford’s,  and  Mr.  Robert 
M‘ Ward’s  letters  to  her,  this  became,  by  the  Divine  blessing,  the 
means  of  impressing  upon  her  youthful  mind  a deep  sense  of  the 
importance  of  religion,  and  of  bringing  her  to  the  saving  knowl- 
edge of  Christ.  Rutherford  writing  to  her  says  : “ I am  glad  that 
ye  have  been  acquainted  from  your  youth  with  the  wrestlings  of 
God.” — ‘T  think  it  great  mercy  that  your  Lord  from  your  youth 
hath  been  hedging  in  your  outstraying  affections,  that  they  may 
not  go  a-whoring  from  himself.” — “ I knew  and  saw  him  (Christ) 
with  you  in  the  furnace  of  affliction  ; for  there  he  wooed  you  to 
himself  and  chose  you  to  be  his.”t  And  M‘Ward  in  a letter  to 
her,  says  : “ He  made  you  bear  the  yoke  in  your  youth,  and  was 
it  not  in  the  wilderness  that  he  first  allured  you  and  spoke  to 
your  heart  ? and  when  come  to  greater  age  ye  wanted  not  your 
domestic  fires  and  house  furnace. ”J  In  youth,  too,  she  imbibed 
that  strong  attachment  to  presbyterian  principles,  which  distin- 
guished her  during  the  whole  of  her  future  life. 

This  lady  was  first  married  to  Sir  John  Gordon  of  Lochinvar, 
afterward  viscount  of  Kenmure.  The  exact  date  of  this  union 
we  have  not  ascertained ; but  we  find  her  mentioned  as  his  wife 
early  in  1626.  Mr.  John  Livingstone,  who  had  visited  Galloway 
in  the  beginning  of  the  summer  of  that  year  upon  the  invitation 
of  Sir  John  Gordon,  informs  us  in  his  life,  that  during  the  short 
period  of  his  sojourn  in  that  district,  he  “ got  acquaintance  with 
Lord  Kenmure  and  his  religious  lady.”|l  Sir  John  was  a man 

* Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  i.,  p.  94  : and  vol.  ii.,  p.,  274.  Playfair’s  British  Fam- 
ily Antiquities,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  127,  247. 

t Letters  of  Mr.  Samuel  Rudierford,  Whyte  and  Kennedy’s  edition,  Edinburgh, 
1848,  pp.  8,  45,  58. 

t Wodrow  MSS.  vol.  Iviii.,  folio,  No.  53. 

II  Select  Biographies,  printed  for  the  Wodrow  Society,  vol.  i.,  p.  135.  Douglas  is 


LADY  KENMURE. 


66 


of  accomplishment  and  piety,  and,  like  his  lady,  a warm  friend 
to  the  presbyterian  interest.  As  Rosco,  the  place  of  his  resi- 
dence, was  situated  in  the  parish  of  Anwoth,  he  made  no  small 
exertions,  and  ultimately  with  success,  to  effect  the  disjunction 
of  that  parish  from  two  other  parishes’^  with  which  it  was  united, 
and  to  get  it  erected  into  a separate  parish,  having  a minister  ex- 
clusively to  itself.  He  had  first  an  eye  to  Mr.  John  Livingstone 
as  its  minister,  whom  with  that  view,  as  we  have  seen,  he  invi- 
ted to  Galloway,  but  who,  before  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  its 
erection  into  a separate  parish  were  overcome,  accepted  a call 
from  Torphichen.  He,  however,  succeeded  in  obtaining  for  An- 
woth, Mr.  Samuel  Rutherford ; nor  was  his  zeal  limited  to  his 
endeavors  to  obtain  an  efficient  gospel-minister  to  his  own  parish, 
the  extension  of  the  same  blessing  through  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land  being  an  object  in  which  he  felt  the  deepest  interest.! 
Lady  Gordon  and  her  husband  were  thus  placed  under  the  min- 
istry of  Mr.  Samuel  Rutherford.  This  they  accounted  a high 
privilege,  and  they  were  in  no  small  degree  instrumental,  both  by 
the  example  of  a Christian  deportment,  and  by  the  influence  of  a 
high  station,  in  promoting  the  interests  of  true  religion  among 
their  fellow-parishioners. 

From  the  beginning.  Lady  Gordon  formed  a very  high  opinion 
of  Rutherford’s  talents  and  piety ; and,  as  the  course  of  his  min- 
istry advanced,  she  appreciated  in  an  increasing  degree  his  pas- 
toral diligence  and  faithfulness.  Rutherford,  on  the  other  hand, 
highly  esteemed  her  for  the  amiableness  of  her  disposition,  the 
humility  of  her  demeanor,  and  the  sanctity  of  her  deportment,  as 
well  as  for  her  enlightened  and  warm  attachment  to  the  presby- 
terian cause.  An  intimate  Christian  friendship  was  thus  soon 
formed  between  them  ; and  they  maintained  frequent  epistolary 
intercourse  on  religious  subjects  till  the  death  of  Rutherford,  the 
last  of  whose  letters  to  her,  dated  July  24,  1660,  scarcely  eight 
months  before  his  own  death,  was  written  on  hearing  that  her  broth- 
er, the  marquis  of  Argyll,  was  imprisoned  by  Charles  IL,  in  the 
Tower  of  London.  Many  of  his  letters  to  her  have  been  printed, 
and  are  well  known.  All  of  them  evidently  indicate  his  conviction 
that  he  was  writing  to  one  whose  attainments  in  religion  were 
of  no  ordinary  kind,  as  well  as  the  deep  interest  which  he  took 
in  her  spiritual  welfare  and  comfort ; and  they  abound  in  grate- 
ful acknowledgments  of  the  numerous  tokens  of  kindness  and 

therefore  mistaken  in  saying  in  his  Peerage,  (vol.  ii.,  p.  27),  that  their  marriage  took 
place  in  1628. 

* These  were  Kirkdale  and  Kirkmabreck.  t Rutherford’s  Letters,  p.  7. 

6=^ 


66 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


generosity  which  he  had  received  at  her  hands.  None  of  her 
letters  to  him  have  been  preserved ; but,  from  the  allusions  to 
them  in  his  letters,  we  gather  that  they  were  characterized  by  a 
strain  of  sincere  and  humble  piety,  by  the  confidence  of  genuine 
friendship,  the  warmth  of  Christian  sympathy,  and  a spirit  of  ac- 
tive benevolence.  She  complained  that,  notwithstanding  all  the 
methods  adopted  by  her  Savior  to  teach  her,  she  was  yet  an  ill 
scholar,  lamented  her  deficiencies  in  the  practice  of  holiness,  and 
expressed  her  fears  that  she  had  little  grace,  but  encouraged  her- 
self from  the  consideration  that  God’s  compassions  failed  not, 
although  her  service  to  him  miscarried.*  In  all  her  difficulties, 
doubts,  and  trials,  she  applied  to  him  for  advice  and  comfort,  in 
the  happy  art  of  communicating  which  he  was  equalled  by  few. 
And  such  was  the  confidence  she  reposed  in -his  piety,  wisdom, 
and  prudence,  that  she  could  communicate  the  state  of  her  mind  to 
him  with  more  freedom  than  to  almost  any  other  individual  with 
whom  she  was  acquainted.  Of  all  his  friends,  none  took  a deeper 
interest  in  his  welfare  than  she  took.  Tender  in  her  feelings,  she 
warmly  sympathized  with  him  under  his  domestic  afilictions,  un- 
der the  loss  of  his  children  and  his  wife.f  Her  influence  she 
was  ever  ready  to  exert  in  his  behalf  when  he  w^as  subjected  to 
public  suffering  in  the  cause  of  truth  ; and  instances  are  not  want- 
ing of  persons  in  high  places  befriending  him  from  a knowledge 
of  the  Christian  intimacy  which  subsisted  between  him  and  this 
excellent  lady.  When  he  was  summoned  to  appear  before  the 
court  of  high  commission  in  1630,  Mr.  Alexander  Colville,  one 
of  the  judges,  for  respect  to  your  ladyship,”  says  Rutherford  to 
her,  was  my  great  friend,  and  wrote  a most  kind  letter  to  me. 
I entreat  your  ladyship  to  thank  Mr.  Alexander  Colville  with  two 
lines  of  a letter. When  he  was  before  the  same  court  in  1636, 

the  Lord,”  says  he,  writing  to  Marion  M‘Naught,  “ has  brought 
me  a friend  from  the  highlands  of  Argyll,  my  lord  of  Lorn,||  who 
has  done  as  much  as  v/as  within  the  compass  of  his  power  an 
act  of  generosity  which  he  doubtless  owed  to  his  friendship  with 
Lady  Gordon  ; for  he  was  ‘‘  a poor  unknown  stranger  to  his  lord- 
ship.”^ And  when  her  influence  was  insufficient  to  shield  him 
from  persecution,  he  could  calculate  upon  being  a sharer  in  her 
sympathies  and  prayers,  as  his  numerous  letters  to  her  from  Aber- 
deen, when  confined  a prisoner  there  by  the  high  commission- 
court,  fully  testify.  Writing  to  her  from  his  place  of  confinement, 

""  Pcutlierford’s  Letters,  pp.  123,  183,  200,  203-205.  t Ib  , pp.  57,  65,  67.  t Ib.,  p.  21. 

Ij  Brother  to  Lady  Kenmure,  and  afterward  the  marquis  of  Argyll,  who  suffered 
in  1661.  § Rutherford’s  Letters,  p.  105.  ^ Ibid.,  p.  107. 


LADY  KENMURE. 


67 


June  17,  1637,  lie  says,  ‘‘  I am  somewhat  encouraged  in  that  your 
ladyship  is  not  dry  and  cold  to  Christ’s  prisoner,  as  some  are.”* 
And  in  a letter  to  Lady  Culross,  from  the  same  place  and  in  the 
same  year,  he  thus  writes  : “I  know  also  that  ye  are  kind  to  my 
worthy  Lady  Kenmure,  a woman  beloved  of  the  Lord,  who  hath 
been  very  mindful  of  my  bonds.  The  Lord  give  her  and  her 
child  to  find  mercy  in  the  day  of  Christ.”! 

Lady  Gordon,  who  had  suffered  much  from  ill  health  in  the 
previous  part  of  her  life,  was,  in  July,  1628,  visited  with  sick- 
ness. Under  this  affliction,  Rutherford  reminded  her  that  He 
who  “ knew  the  frame  and  constitution  of  her  nature,  and  what 
was  most  healthful  for  her  soul,  held  every  cup  of  affliction  to 
her  head  with  his  own  gracious  hand  ;”  and  that  her  “ tender- 
hearted Savior,  who  knew  the  strength  of  her  stomach,  would 
not  mix  that  cup  with  one  dram  weight  of  poison. ”|  About  the 
close  of  the  same  year,  or  the  beginning  of  the  year  1629,  she 
was  bereaved  of  an  infant  daughter.  On  this  occasion  Ruther- 
ford visited  her,  to  administer  Christian  comfort,  and  afterward 
kindly  addressed  to  her  a consolatory  letter.  Among  other 
things,  he  suggested  to  her  these  considerations,  so  finely  ex- 
pressed, and  so  well  fitted  to  sustain  the  afflicted  spirit  of  a mother 
under  such  a trial : “Ye  have  lost  a child ; nay,  she  is  not  lost 
to  you  who  is  found  to  Christ ; she  is  not  sent  away,  but  only 
sent  before,  like  unto  a star,  Avhich,  going  out  of  our  sight,  doth 
not  die  and  evanish,  but  shineth  in  another  hemisphere.  Ye  see 
her  not,  yet  she  doth  shine  in  another  country.  If  her  glass  was 
but  a short  hour,  what  she  wanteth  of  time,  that  she  hath  gotten 
of  eternity ; and  ye  have  to  rejoice  that  ye  have  now  some  plen- 
ishing up  in  heaven.  Show  yourself  a Christian  by  suffering 
without  murmuring.  In  patience  possess  your  soul.”|| 

In  the  autumn  of  the  year  1629,  she  and  her  husband  removed 
from  Rosco  to  London,  where  they  intended  to  reside  for  some 
time.§  The  design  of  Sir  John  in  going  to  London  probably  was 
to  prosecute  his  views  of  worldly  honor  and  ambition.  By  right 
of  his  mother,  who  was  Lady  Isabel  Ruthven,  daughter  of  Wil- 
liam, first  earl  of  Gowrie,  he  expected  that  the  honors  of  the 

Rutherford’s  Letters,  p.  409.  t Ibid  , p.  438.  f Ibid.,  p.  5.  |I  Ibid.,  pp.  8-10. 

5 Murray,  in  his  ‘‘  Memoirs  of  Lord  Kenmure,”  prefixed  to  an  edition  of  his  “ Last 
and  Heavenly  Speeche.s,”  says  that  they  removed  to  Edinburgh,  but  this  must  be  a 
mistake  ; for  Rutherford,  bidding  Lady  Gordon  farewell  on  that  occasion,  says  that 
he  “ had  small  assurance  ever  to  see  her  face  again  till  the  last  general  assembly, 
where  the  whole  church -universal  shall  meet”— language  which  he  would  not  prob- 
ably have  used  had  she  only  removed  to  Edinburgh  ; and  he  further  says:  “Ye  are 
going  to  a country  where  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  in  the  gospel  shineth  not  so 
deafly  as  in  this  kingdom.” — Rutherford's  Letters,  p.  10. 


68 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


house  of  Gowrie,  attainted  for  high-treason  in  1600,  would  be 
revived  in  his  person.  With  the  view  of  making  this  acquisi- 
tion, he  is  said  to  have  sold  the  lands  of  Stitchill,*  the  ancient 
inheritance  of  the  family,  and  to  have  given  to  the  duke  of  Buck- 
ingham, the  evening  before  his  assassination  by  Felton,  the  pur- 
chase price,  in  a purse  of  gold,  as  a bribe  to  him  to  support  his 
claims,  t 

Lady  Gordon’s  change  of  residence,  brought  about  by  these 
circumstances,  in  less  than  two  years  after  Rutherford’s  induc- 
tion, was  no  small  loss  both  to  him  and  to  his  people  ; and  he 
lamented  her  departure  as  one  of  the  heaviest  trials  he  had  met 
with  since  the  Lord  had  called  him  to  the  ministry ; “ but,”  says 
he,  “ I perceive  God  will  have  us  to  be  deprived  of  whatsoever 
we  idolize,  that  he  may  have  his  own  room.”J 

During  her  absence,  she  and  Rutherford  maintained  a regular 
epistolary  correspondence.  He  assured  her  how  exceedingly  he 
longed  to  hear  of  her  spiritual  welfare,  and  that  it  was  his  con- 
stant prayer  at  the  throne  of  grace,  that  while  “ deprived,”  as  she 
then  was,  ‘‘  of  the  comfort  of  a lively  ministry,”  God  might  be  to 
her  as  a little  sanctuary  ; and  that  as  she  “ advanced  in  years  and 
stealed  forward  insensibly  toward  eternity,  her  faith  might  grow 
and  ripen  for  the  Lord’s  harvest.”||  In  her  communications  to 
him,  she  complained  of  bodily  infirmity  and  weakness  ; but  Ruth- 
erford reminds  her  that  it  is  better  to  be  sick,  providing  Christ 
come  to  the  bedside  and  draw  by  (aside)  the  curtains,  and  say, 
‘ Courage,  I am  thy  salvation,’  than  to  enjoy  health,  being  lusty 
and  strong,  and  never  to  be  visited  of  God.”^  He  also  regrets 
her  absence,  for  the  sake  of  the  interests  of  religion  in  her  native 
country.  “We  would  think  it  a blessing,”  says  he,  “to  our 
kirk,  to  see  you  here.”Tf  She  and  her  husband  appear  to  have 
remained  in  England  till  about  the  close  of  the  year  1631,  when 
they  returned  to  Scotland,  and  settled  at  Kenmure  castle,  a place 
about  twenty  miles  distant  from  Anwoth,  and  which  has  ever 
since  been  the  residence  of  the  family.**  During  her  stay  in 
England,  notwithstanding  reports  to  the  contrary,  she  “ had  not 
changed  upon  nor  wearied  of  her  sweet  master  Christ  and  his 
service  and  Rutherford  still  “ expected  that  whatever  she  could 
do  by  word  or  deed  for  the  Lord’s  friendless  Zion,  she  would 
do  it.”tt 

* He  was  served  heir  to  his  father  20th  of  March,  1629,  his  father  having  died  in 
November,  1628. — Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  ii.,  p.  27.  t Ibid. 

|:  Rutherford’s  Letters,  p.  11.  ||  Ibid.,  pp.  17,  20,  37.  6 Ibid.,  pp.  19,  20. 

^ Ibid , p.  17.  Ibid.,  pp.  39,  40.  ft  Ibid.,  p.  44. 


LADY  KENMURE. 


69 


Early  in  the  year  1633,  she  was  bereaved  of  another  daughter, 
who  died  in  infancy,  as  we  learn  from  a letter  written  to  her  by 
Rutherford  on  the  1st  of  April  that  year.  “I  have  heard  also, 
madam,  that  your  child  is  removed ; but  to  have  or  want  is  best 
as  He  pleaseth.  Whether  she  be  with  you  or  in  God’s  keeping, 
think  it  all  one ; nay,  think  it  the  better  of  the  two  by  far  that 
she  is  with  him.”* 

By  letters-patent,  dated  8th  of  May,  1633,  her  husband  was 
created  viscount  of  Kenmure  and  lord  of  Lochinvar,  the  title 
descending  to  his  heirs  male  whatever  bearing  the  name  and 
arms  of  Gordon ; and  she  was  with  him  in  Edinburgh  when  he 
attended  King  Charles  I.  at  the  parliament  in  June  that  year; 
but  after  staying  only  a few  days,  they  returned  home  to  their 
country-seat,  the  castle  of  Kenmure.  The  reason  of  their  early 
departure  was  this  : In  that  parliament  Charles  intended  to  pass 
two  acts — the  one,  ratifying  the  acts  of  Perth  assembly  and  other 
acts  made  for  settling  and  advancing  the  estate  of  bishops  ; and 
the  other,  asserting  the  king’s  prerogative  to  impose  the  surplice 
and  other  popish  apparel  upon  ministers.!  For  neither  of  these 
acts  could  Lord  Kenmure,  according  to  his  convictions  of  duty, 
give  his  vote  ; but  instead  of  attending  the  parliament,  and  hon- 
estly opposing  the  passing  of  these  acts,  as  others  nobly  did,  at 
a juncture  when  the  safety  of  the  presbyterian  cause  demanded 
the  most  decided  and  energetic  measures  on  the  part  of  its  friends, 
he  pusillanimously  deserted  the  parliament,  under  pretence  of 
indisposition,  for  fear  of  incurring  the  displeasure  of  his  prince, 
who  had  already  elevated  him  to  the  peerage,  and  from  whom  he 
expected  additional  honors  ; a dereliction  of  duty  for  which  at 
the  time,  as  he  afterward  declared,  he  felt  “ fearful  wrestlings  of 
conscience,”  and  which  caused  him  the  most  bitter  remorse  in 
his  dying  moments. 

When  in  Edinburgh,  Lady  Kenmure  had  an  opportunity  of 
witnessing  the  imposing  splendor  and  gayety  of  a court ; but 
scenes  which  have  so  often  dazzled  and  intoxicated  others,  only 
served  the  more  deeply  to  impress  upon  her  mind,  what  she  had 
long  before  learned  by  the  teaching  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  the 
empty  and  evanescent  nature  of  all  the  glitter  and  pageantry  of 
the  world.  “ I bless  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,”  says  Rutherford  to 
her  on  her  return,  “ who  hath  brought  you  home  again  to  your 
country  from  that  place  where  ye  have  seen  with  your  eyes,  that 
which  our  Lord’s  truth  taught  you  before,  to  wit,  that  worldly 

* Rutherford’s  Letters,  p.  56. 

t Scot’s  Apologetical  Narration,  p.  340  ; Rutherford's  Letters,  p.  490. 


70 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


glory  is  notliing  but  a vapor,  a shadow,  the  foam  of  the  water, 
or  something  less  and  lighter,  even  nothing ; and  that  our  Lord 
hath  not  without  cause  said  in  his  word,  ‘ The  countenance  or 
fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away.’ 

Worldly  honor  and  splendor  had,  however,  more  attractions  for 
her  husband.  So  great  an  influence  had  they  of  late  acquired 
over  his  mind,  that  though  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  he 
was  a converted  man,  yet  he  had  fallen  into  a state  of  compara- 
tive indifference  both  as  to  personal  religion  and  the  public  inter- 
ests of  the  church.  Rutherford,  it  would  seem,  perceived  this, 
and  with  his  characteristic  fidelity  urges  it  upon  Lady  Kenmure 
as  ‘‘  a part  of  the  truth  of  her  profession,  to  drop  words  in  the 
ears  of  her  noble  husband  continually  of  eternity,  judgment,  death, 
hell,  heaven,  the  honorable  profession,  the  sins  of  his  father’s 
house.”  “ I know,”  says  he,  “ he  looketh  homeward  and  loveth 
the  truth,  but  I pity  him  with  my  soul,  because  of  his  many  temp- 
tations.”! With  this  counsel,  from  her  eminently  religious  char- 
acter, we  need  not  doubt  that  she  would  comply. 

In  the  spring  of  1634,  she  lost  another  daughter,  who  had  be- 
come dangerously  ill  toward  the  close  of  the  preceding  year,  and 
who  was  only  about  a year  old.J  Writing  to  Marion  M‘Naught, 
April  25,  1634,  Rutherford  says  : ‘‘  Know  that  I have  been  vis- 
iting Lady  Kenmure.  Her  child  is  with  the  Lord ; I entreat 
you  visit  her,  and  desire  the  goodwife  of  Barcapple  to  visit  her, 
and  Knockbreck,||  if  you  see  him  in  the  town.  My  lord  her 
husband  is  absent,  and  I think  she  will  be  heavy.”  And  in  a 
consolatory  letter  addressed  to  herself  on  that  occasion  he  thus 
writes  : ‘‘  I believe  faith  will  teach  you  to  kiss  a striking  Lord, 
and  so  acknowledge  the  sovereignty  of  God  in  the  death  of  a 
child,  to  be  above  the  power  of  us  mortal  men,  who  may  pluck 
up  a flower  in  the  bud,  and  not  be  blamed  for  it.  If  our  dear 
Lord  pluck  up  one  of  his  roses,  and  pull  down  sour  and  green 
fruit  before  harvest,  who  can  challenge  him 

In  the  autumn  of  1634,  she  met  with  a still  more  severe  trial 
in  the  death  of  Lord  Kenmure.  His  lordship  left  Kenmure  cas- 
tle for  Edinburgh  in  the  month  of  August  that  year,  probably  on 
business  connected  with  the  earldom  of  Gorwie,  to  which  he  was 
so  desirous  of  being  elevated.  But  it  was  the  ordination  of  Prov- 
idence that  his  hopes  of  this  preferment  should  never  be  realized. 
After  staying  some  days  in  Edinburgh,  he  came  home  toward 
the  end  of  August  under  much  indisposition.  It  turned  out  to 

♦ Rutherford’s  Letters.,  p.  76.  t Ibid.,  p.  59.  f Ibid.,  pp.  59,  63. 

II  Robert  Gordon  of  Knockbreck.  § Rutherford’s  Letters,  p.  65. 


LADY  KENMURE. 


71 


be  a fever,  of  which,  after  enduring  much  suffering,  he  died  on 
the  12th  of  September,  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-five.  Having, 
as  we  have  just  now  said,  been  for  some  time  past  less  careful 
in  cultivating  personal  piety,  and  less  zealous  in  promoting  the 
public  interests  of  the  church  than  in  former  days,  he  was  pain- 
fully conscious  of  his  want  of  preparation  for  death ; and  at  first 
the  most  poignant  remorse  took  possession  of  his  conscience, 
causing  many  a pang  of  anguish  and  many  a bitter  tear  to  flow. 
Among  the  sins  which  at  that  solemn  period  came  crowding  into 
his  memory,  that  which  occasioned  him  the  greatest  agony  was 
his  deserting  the  parliament  the  preceding  year.  “ Since  I did 
lie  down  on  this  bed,”  said  he  to  Mr.  Andrew  Lamb,  the  bishop 
of  Galloway,  who  visited  him,  “ the  sin  that  lay  heaviest  on  my 
soul  and  hath  burdened  my  conscience  most,  was  my  withdraw- 
ing of  myself  from  the  parliament,,  and  not  giving  my  voice  for 
the  truth  against  those  things  which  they  call  indifferent ; for  in 
so  doing  I have  denied  the  Lord  my  God.”  But  by  the  judicious 
counsels  of  Rutherford,  who  continued  with  him  at  the  castle, 
almost  from  the  commencement  of  his  illness  to  his  death,  he 
was  led  to  improve  the  peace-speaking  blood  of  Christ ; and  thus 
attaining  to  the  full  assurance  that  God  in  his  abounding  mercy 
had  pardoned  his  sins,  he  enjoyed  much  comfort  in  passing 
through  the  dark  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death.  A few  minutes 
before  its  departure,  Rutherford  engaged  in  prayer,  and  ‘‘  in  the 
time  of  that  last  prayer,  his  lordship  was  observed  joyfully  smi- 
ling, and  looking  up  with  glorious  looks,  as  was  observed  by  the 
beholders,  and  with  a certain  beauty  his  visage  was  beautified, 
as  beautiful  as  ever  he  was  in  his  life.  And  the  expiry  of  his 
breath,  the  ceasing  of  the  motion  of  his  pulse  (which  the  physi- 
cian was  still  holding),  corresponded  exactly  with  the  Amen  of 
the  prayer, — and  so  he  died  sweetly  and  holily,  and  his  end  was 
peace.”* 

During  the  whole  of  his  illness,  Lady  Kenmure  watched  over 
him  with  affectionate  tenderness  and  care.  Of  her  kind  and 
unwearied  attentions,  as  well  as  of  her  high  Christian  excellence, 
he  was  deeply  sensible.  “ He  gave  her,  diverse  times,  and  that 
openly,  an  honorable  and  ample  testimony  of  holiness  and  good- 
ness, and  of  all  respectful  kindness  to  him,  earnestly  craved  her 
forgiveness  wherein  he  had  offended  her,  desired  her  to  make 
the  Lord  her  comforter,  and  observed  that  he  was  gone  before, 
and  that  it  was  but  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  up  or  down.”  She 

* The  Last  and  Heavenly  Speeches  and  Glorious  Departure  of  John  Viscount  of 
Kenmure,  by  Samuel  Rutherford. 


72 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


felt,  in  a special  manner,  deeply  anxious  about  the  state  of  his 
soul.  When,  on  the  first  night  of  Rutherford’s  arrival  at  Ken- 
mure  castle,  his  lordship  expressed  to  him  his  fears  of  death,  and 
desired  him  to  stay  with  him  and  show  him  the  marks  of  a child 
of  God,  for,”  said  he,  “ you  must  be  my  second  in  this  combat 
she  judiciously  observed,  You  must  have  Jesus  Christ  to  be 
your  second an  observation  in  which  he  cordially  concurred. 
At  another  time,  when,  from  the  hopes  of  recovery,  inspired  by 
the  temporary  abating  of  the  fever,  he  became  much  less  con- 
cerned about  the  salvation  of  his  soul  than  before,  it  is  particu- 
larly mentioned  in  his,  “ Last  and  Heavenly  Speeches,”  that 
this  was  to  her  a source  of  no  small  distress. 

Under  this  painful  bereavement.  Lady  Kenmure  was  enabled 
to  exercise  a pious  resignation  to  the  will  of  her  heavenly  Father, 
all  whose  dispensations  toward  her  she  believed  to  be  in  wisdom 
and  love,  a consideration  which  proved  her  chief  support  and 
surest  consolation  under  all  her  afflictions.  In  attaining  to  this 
desirable  state  of  mind,  she  was  greatly  aided  by  Rutherford, 
who,  while  he  remained  at  the  castle,  allayed  her  sorrow  by  his 
prayers  and  counsels,  and  who,  on  his  return  home,  still  addres- 
sing himself  to  the  task  of  soothing  her  grief,  wrote  her  a very 
comforting  letter  two  days  after  the  fatal  event.  “And,  albeit,” 
says  he,  “ I must,  out  of  some  experience,  say  the  mourning  for 
the  husband  of  your  youth  be  by  God’s  own  mouth  the  heaviest 
worldly  sorrow  (Joel  i.  8) ; and  though  this  be  the  weightiest 
burden  that  ever  lay  upon  your  back,  yet  ye  know  (when  the  fields 
are  emptied,  and  your  husband  now  asleep  in  the  Lord),  if  ye 
shall  wait  upon  him  who  hideth  his  face  for  a while,  that  it  lieth 
upon  God’s  honor  and  truth  to  fill  the  field,  and  to  be  a husband 
to  the  widow.”  Speaking  of  Lord  Kenmure,  he  says,  “ Remem- 
ber, that  star  that  shined  in  Galloway  is  now  shining  in  another 
world.”  And,  in  reference  to  the  past  trials  of  her  life,  as  well 
as  to  the  present,  he  observes  : — “ I dare  say  that  God’s  hammer- 
ing of  you  from  your  youth,  is  only  to  make  you  a fair  carved 
stone  in  the  high  upper  temple  of  the  New  Jerusalem.  Your 
Lord  never  thought  this  world’s  vain  painted  glory  a gift  worthy 
of  you ; and  therefore  would  not  bestow  it  on  you,  because  he  is 
to  present  you  with  a better  portion.  I am  now  expecting  to 
see,  and  that  with  joy  and  comfort,  that  which  I hoped  of  you 
since  I knew  you  fully ; even  that  ye  have  laid  such  strength 
upon  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  that  ye  defy  troubles,  and  that  your 
soul  is  a castle  that  may  be  besieged,  but  can  not  be  taken. 
What  have  you  to  do  here  ? This  world  never  looked  like  a 


LADY  KENMURE. 


73 


friend  upon  you.  Ye  owe  it  little  love.  It  looked  eversourlike 
upon  you.”* * * §  In  another  letter  he  thus  writes,  in  reference  to  the 
same  subject : — “ In  this  late  visitation  that  hath  befallen  your 
ladyship,  ye  have  seen  God’s  love  and  care  in  such  a measure 
that  I thought  our  Lord  broke  the  sharp  point  off  the  cross,  and 
made  us  and  your  ladyship  see  Christ  take  possession  and  infeft- 
ment  upon  earth  of  him  who  is  now  reigning  and  triumphing 
with  the  hundred  forty  and  four  thousand  who  stand  with  the 
Lamb  on  Mount  Zion.”t  Under  this  bereavement,  she  had  the 
kind  condolence  of  many  honorable  friends  and  worthy  profes- 
sors.” f 

To  this  nobleman,  besides  the  three  daughters,  who,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  died  in  infancy,  she  had  a son,  John,  second 
viscount  of  Kenmure,  who  was  served  heir  to  his  father  in  his 
large  estates  in  the  stewartry  of  Kirkcudbright,  17th  of  March, 
1635,  and  whose  testamentary  tutors  were  Archibald,  marquis  of 
Argyll,  and  William,  earl  of  Morton.  1|  This  son  was  born  after 
his  father’s  death,  about  the  close  of  the  year  1634,  or  early  in 
the  year  1635  and  died  in  infancy  in  August,  1639,  at  the  age 
of  four  years  and  some  months.  He  had  long  before  been  in  so 
delicate  health  as  to  excite  the  apprehensions  of  his  mother, 
whose  maternal  solicitudes  were  all  concentrated  in  her  tender 
watchfulness  over  her  infant  boy.  His  death  therefore  could  not 
be  said  to  have  come  unexpected,  nor  could  she  be  altogether 
unprepared  for  the  stroke.  But  still  the  removal  of  this  much 
loved  and  caressed  child  inflicted  a deep  wound  on  the  affection- 
ate mother’s  heart.  He  was  her  only  son  and  her  only  remain- 
ing child,  the  heir  of  his  father’s  wealth  and  honors,  and  by  his 
death  the  honors  and  estates  of  the  noble  house  of  Kenmure 
would  pass  into  another  family.  All  these  circumstances  would 
naturally  intwine  her  affections  around  him,  and  increase  the 
pangs  of  maternal  agony  when  he  was  taken  from  her  and 
laid  in  the  grave.  “ I confess,”  writes  Rutherford  to  her,  “ it 
seemed  strange  to  me  that  your  Lord  should  have  done  that  which 
seemed  to  ding  out  the  bottom  of  your  worldly  comforts  ; but  we 

* Rutherford’s  Letters,  pp.  68,  69.  t Ibid.,  p.  72.  f Ibid.,  p.  73. 

II  Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  ii.,  p 27.  Besides  these  children,  it  is  not  unlikely  she 
had  some  others  who  also  died  in  infancy.  Rutherford,  writing  to  her  in  1634,  says 

that  the  Lord  had  taken  away  from  her  many  children. — Rutherford’s  Letters, 
p.  78. 

§ In  one  of  Rutherford’s  letters  to  her,  dated  November  29,  1634,  obvious  allu- 
sions are  made  to  her  being  near  the  time  of  her  confinement,  and  die  child  bom 
was  evidently  tliis  son;  for  Rutherford  reminds  her,  after  his  death,  that  she  had 
got  a four-years’  loan  of  him.  He  would  be  some  months  more  than  four  years 
of  age. 


7 


74 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


see  not  the  ground  of  the  Almighty’s  sovereignty ; ‘ he  goeth  by 
on  our  right  hand,  and  on  our  left  hand,  and  we  see  him  not.’ 
We  see  but  pieces  of  the  broken  links  of  the  chains  of  his  provi- 
dence ; and  he  coggeth  the  wheels  of  his  own  providence  that 
we  see  not.  Oh,  let  the  Former  wopk  his  own  clay  into  what 
frame  he  pleaseth ! ‘ Shall  any  teach  the  Almighty  knowledge  V 
If  he  pursue  the  dry  stubble,  who  dare  say,  ‘ What  doest  thou  V 
Do  not  wonder  to  see  the  Judge  of  the  world  weave  into  one  web 
your  mercies  and  the  judgments  of  the  house  of  Kenmure.  He 
can  make  one  web  of  contraries.”*  God,  however,  does  nothing 
without  wise  and  holy  reasons,  and  the  spiritual  improvement  of 
his  people  is  an  end  of  which  he  never  loses  sight  in  all  the 
trials  with  which  he  visits  them.  ‘‘  But,”  adds  Rutherford,  in 
the  same  letter,  “ my  weak  advice,  with  reverence  and  correc- 
tion, were  for  you,  dear  and  worthy  lady,  to  see  how  far  mortifi- 
cation goeth  on,  and  what  scum  the  Lord’s  fire  casteth  out  of  you. 
...  I do  not  say  that  heavier  afflictions  prophesy  heavier  guilti- 
ness ; a cross  is  often  but  a false  prophet  in  this  kind  ; but  I am 
sure  that  our  Lord  would  have  the  tin  and  the  bastard  metal  in 
you  removed  ; lest  the  Lord  say,  ‘ The  bellows  are  burnt,  the 
lead  is  consumed  in  the  fire,  the  Founder  melteth  in  vain’”  (Jer. 
vi.  29).  And  in  the  conclusion,  he  thus  counsels  her  : “ It  is  a 
Christian  art  to  comfort  yourself  in  the  Lord ; to  say,  ‘ I was 
obliged  to  render  back  again  this  child  to  the  Giver  ; and  if  I 
have  had  four  years’  loan  of  him,  and  Christ  eternity’s  possession 
of  him,  the  Lord  hath  kept  condition  with  me.’  ” 

Lady  Kejimure,  on  the  21st  of  September,  1640,  nearly  a year 
after  the  death  of  her  son,  married  for  her  second  husband  the 
Honorable  Sir  Henry  Montgomery  of  Giffen,  second  son  of  Al- 
exander, sixth  earl  of  Eglinton.  This  new  relation  proved  a 
source  of  happiness  to  both.  Sir  Henry  was  an  excellent  man ; his 
sentiments  on  religious  and  ecclesiastical  questions  corresponded 
with  her  own ; and  he  is  described  as  an  “ active  and  faithful 
friend  of  the  Lord’s  kirk.”t  But  the  union,  which  was  without 
issue,  did  not  last  long : she  was  soon  left  a widow  a second 
time,  in  which  state  she  lived  till  a very  venerable  age.  The 
exact  time  of  Sir  Henry’s  death  we  have  not  discovered.  Ruth- 
erford addressed  a letter  to  her  on  that  occasion,  from  St.  An- 
drews, but  it  wants  the  date  of  the  year.J  Though  by  this  sec- 
ond marriage  she  became  Lady  Montgomery,  we  shall  take  the 
liberty  still  to  designate  her  “ Lady  Kenmure,”  as  this  is  the 
name  by  which  she  is  most  generally  known. 

Rutherford’s  Letters,  p.  573,  f Ibid.,  p.  623.  t Ibid.,  p.  623. 


LADY  KENMURE. 


76 


Subsequently  to  this,  Rutherford’s  letters  to  her  furnish  few 
additional  facts  respecting  her  history.  They  contain  repeated 
allusions  to  her  bodily  infirmities  ; and  from  their  tone,  it  is  mani- 
fest that  she  had  attained  to  much  maturity  in  grace,  and  that  “ all 
the  sad  losses,  trials,  sicknesses,  infirmities,  griefs,  heaviness, 
and  inconstancy,  of  the  creature,”  had  been  ripening  her  for 
heaven.  There  is  also  evidence  that  she  continued  steadfast  in 
the  principles  of  the  second  reformation,  and  adhered  in  her 
judgment  to  the  presbyterian  party  called  the  “ protesters,”  re- 
garding the  policy  of  the  “ resolutioners,”  what  it  really  was,  as 
inconsistent  with  the  obligations  of  the  “ Solemn  League  and 
Covenant,”  of  which,  if  she  did  not  enter  into  it,  she  cordially 
approved.  “ I am  glad,”  says  Rutherford,  writing  to  her  from 
Glasgow,  September  28,  1651,  “that  your  breath  serveth  you  to 
run  to  the  end,  in  the  same  condition  and  way  wherein  ye  have 
walked  these  twenty  years  past.  The  Lord,  it  is  true,  hath 
stained  the  pride  of  all  our  glory,  and  now,  last  of  all,  the  sun 
hath  gone  down  upon  many  of  the  prophets.  ...  I hear  that  your 
ladyship  hath  the  same  esteem  of  the  despised  cause  and  cove- 
nant of  our  Lord  that  ye  had  before.  Madam,  hold  you  there.”* 

Much  would  it  have  gratified  both  these  eminent  saints  to  have 
lived  to  see  “ the  despised  cause  and  covenant  of  the  Lord”  hon- 
ored and  prospering  in  the  land ; but  this  neither  of  them  was 
'privileged  to  witness.  Writing  to  her  in  the  autumn  of  1659, 
Rutherford  tells  her  of  the  satisfaction  it  would  afford  him  should 
God  be  pleased  to  lengthen  out  more  time  to  her,  that  she  might, 
before  her  eyes  were  shut,  “ see  more  of  the  work  of  the  right 
hand  of  the  Lord  in  reviving  a swooning  and  crushed  land  and 
church.”!  More  time  was  indeed  lengthened  out  to  her,  but  it  was 
to  see,  not  the  work  of  God  in  reviving  the  church,  but  the  work 
of  man  in  laying  it  waste,  and  in  persecuting  even  to  the  death 
its  ministers  and  members.  Her  highly-esteemed  correspondent 
was  removed  by  death  on  the  eve  of  these  calamities,  having  died 
on  the  20th  of  March,  1661,  just  in  time  to  escape  being  put  to 
an  ignominious  death  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus.  He  was  taken 
away  from  the  evil  to  come.  She  survived  him  above  eleven 
years,  witnessing  the  desolations  of  the  church,  and  though  per- 
sonally preserved  from  the  fury  of  persecution,  she  suffered  bitterly 
in  some  of  her  nearest  relations. 

After  Rutherford  was  laid  in  the  dust,  she  cherished  his  mem- 
ory with  affectionate  veneration,  and  in  token  of  her  remembrance, 
liberally  extended  her  beneficence  and  kindness  to  his  widow 
^ Rutherford’s  Letters,  p.  679.  t Ibid.,  p.  695. 


76 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


and  only  surviving  daughter.  This  we  find  adverted  to  in  a let- 
ter addressed  to  her  by  Mr.  Robert  M^Ward,  from  Rotterdam, 
October  2d,  but  without  the  date  of  the  year.  “ Madam,”  says 
he,  “ Mrs.  Rutherford  gives  me  often  an  account  of  the  singular 
testimonies  which  she  meets  with  of  your  ladyship’s  affection  to 
her  and  her  daughter.  If  I could  (though  I had  never  had  those 
personal  obligations  to  your  ladyship  which  I have,  and  under 
which  I must  die  undischarged),  I wmuld  look  on  myself  as 
obliged  upon  this  account  to  pray  that  God  may  remember  and 
reward  your  labor  of  love  shown  to  the  dead  and  continued  to 
the  living.”*  The  letters  Rutherford  had  written  to  her  phe  care- 
fully preserved  ; and  when,  after  his  death,  the  publication  of  a 
collection  of  his  letters  was  resolved  upon,  very  desirous  that 
those  of  them  in  her  possession  should  be  included  in  the  vol- 
ume, she  transmitted  them  to  Holland,  to  Mr.  M‘Ward,  under 
whose  superintendence  the  work  was  published  at  Rotterdam,  in 
1664.  When  it  was  published,  M‘Ward  sent  to  her  a copy  in 
common  binding,  and  some  time  after  a copy  bound  in  morocco, 
which,  however,  never  reached  her ; on  learning  which,  he  sent 
her  another  copy  in  the  same  binding.! 

Soon  after  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  a deep  wound  was 
inflicted  on  the  heart  of  Lady  Kenmure  by  the  cruel  manner  in 
which  the  government  treated  her  brother,  the  marquis  of  Argyll,, 
who,  immediately  on  his  arrival  at  Whitehall,  whither  he  had 
proceeded  from  Scotland  to  offer  his  respectful  congratulations  to 
his  majesty,  w^as  by  his  order  thrown  into  the  Tower  of  London, 
and  afterward  brought  to  trial  before  the  Scottish  parliament,  by 
which  he  was  condemned  to  be  beheaded.j:  During  the  course 
of  these  proceedings,  and  subsequently  to  them,  she  received 
kind  letters  of  condolence  from  several  of  her  friends.  Ruther- 
ford, on  hearing  of  the  imprisonment  of  her  brother  in  the  Tower, 
wrote  to  her  from  St.  Andrews,  July  24,  1660,  saying,  among 
other  things,  “ It  is  not  my  part  to  be  unmindful  of  you.  Be  not 

* Wodrow,  MSS.,  vol.  Iviii.,  folio,  No.  52.  t Ibid.,  folio,  No.  56. 

t The  circumstances  connected  with  the  apprehension,  trial,  and  execution  of  the 
marquis  are  more  fully  detailed  in  the  Sketch  of  the  Marchioness  of  Argyll’s  Life, 
which  follows.  In  those  days  it  would  appear  that,  like  astrologers,  who  professed 
to  foretell  the  fortunes  of  men  from  the  aspect  of  the  heavens,  and  the  influence  of 
the  stars,  physiognomists,  with  equal  absurdity,  pretended  to  read  men’s  future  des- 
tiny in  their  countenances.  The  following  instance  of  this  may  be  quoted  as  an  il- 
lustration of  the  foolish  superstition  which,  at  that  period,  existed  in  the  best  edu- 
cated and  most  enlightened  circles  of  society  : “ Alexander  Colville,  justice  depute, 
an  old  servant  of  the  house,  told  me  that  my  Lady  Kenmure,  a gracious  lady,  my 
lord’s  (marquis  of  Argyll’s)  sister,  from  some  little  skill  of  physiognomy,  which  Mr. 
Alexander  had  taught  her,  had  told  him  some  years  ago  that  her  brother  would  die 
in  blood.” — Baillie’s  Letters,  quoted  in  Kirkton's  History,  p.  107. 


LADY  KENMURE. 


77 


afflicted  for  your  brother,  the  marquis  of  Argyll.  As  to  the  main, 
in  my  weak  apprehension,  the  seed  of  God  being  in  him,  and 
love  to  the  people  of  God  and  his  cause,  it  shall  be  well.”*  Af- 
ter the  execution  of  this  nobleman,  Mr.  Robert  M‘Ward,t  on  his 
arrival  in  Holland,  wrote  to  her  a letter,  in  which,  besides  ex- 
pressing his  cordial  sympathy  with  her  under  this  trial,  he  directs 
and  encourages  her,  in  reference  to  those  dark  times  which  had 
then  come  upon  the  church  of  Scotland,  as  well  as  in  regard  to 
those  still  darker  days  which  seemed  to  be  at  hand.  Alter  ad- 
verting to  the  many  personal  and  domestic  afflictions  she  had  suf- 
fered, he  adds  : “ And  now,  madam,  it  is  apparent  what  the  Lord 
hath  been  designing  and  doing  about  you  in  dealing  so  with  you  ; 
for,  besides  that  he  hath  been  thereby  making  your  ladyship  to 
be  a partaker  of  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light ; besides 
this,  I say,  which  is  common  to  your  ladyship  with  all  saints,  he 
seems  to  have  had  this  peculiar  aim,  to  fit  you  for  a piece  of  hard 
service ; and  so  your  ladyship,  after  these  more  private  and  per- 
sonal conflicts  seemed  to  be  over,  or  were  forgotten,  hath  had 
the  honor  amongst  the  first  to  be  brought  upon  the  stage,  though 
not  in  your  own  person,  yet  in  your  honorable  and  deservedly 
dear  relations,  there  to  act  a part  very  unpleasant  to  flesh  and 
blood,  even  to  see  those  who  were  to  your  ladyship  as  yourself, 
■slain  (I  may  say  it,  and  it  is  known  to  be  true  upofi  the  matter), 
for  the  word  of  God  and  their  testimony  which  they  held.  Thus 
he  hath  not  hid  sorrow  from  your  eyes,  and  yet  there  is  such  a 
sweet  mixture  in  the  bitter  cup  as  no  doubt  gives  it  so  delectable 

*RtJtherford’s  Letters,  p.  707. 

t Mr.  Robert  M‘W ard,  whose  name  has  frequently  occurred  before,  became  min- 
ister of  the  outer  high  church,  Glasgow,  upon  the  death  of  Mr.  Andrew  Gray, 
who  died  in  February,  1656.  He,  and  Mr.  John  Baird^who  became  minister  of 
Paisley,  when  studying  at  the  college  of  St.  Andrews,  were  reckoned  the  two  best 
scholars  in  all  the  college  ; and  he  maintained,  through  life,  his  reputation  as  a man 
of  talent  as  well  as  of  piety.  Distinguished  for  the  highly  oratorical  style  of  his 
■pulpit  compositions,  on  which  he  bestowed  much  labor,  he  was  very  popular.  Re- 
ferring to  his  ornate  style,  a friend  observed  that  he  was  “ a brave  busking  preach- 
er and,  on  one  occasion,  Mr.  James  Rowat,  minister  of  Kilmarnock,  said  to  him, 
“ God  forgive  you,  brother,  that  darkens  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  by  your 
oratory.”  M‘W  ard  was  a zealous  presbyterian,  and  strongly  opposed  to  the  public 
resolutions.  As  might  have  been  expected,  he  did  not  long  escape  persecution  after 
the  restoration  of  Charles  IT.  Incurring  the  resentment  of  the  government,  for  the 
freedom  and  fidelity  with  which  he  expressed  his  sentiments,  in  a sermon  preached 
at  Glasgow,  from  Amos  iii.  2,  in.  February,  1661,  he  was  brought  before  the  parlia- 
ment on  the  6ih  of  June  that  year  ; and,  on  the  5th  or  6lh  of  July,  they  passed  sen- 
tence of  banishment  upon  him,  but  allowed  him  to  remain  six  months  in  the  nation. 
Removing  to  Holland,  he  became  minister  of  the  Scottish  congregation  in  Rotter- 
dam, where,  with  sonae  temporary  interruptions,  he  continued  to  labor  with  dili- 
gence and  success  until  his  death,  which  took  place  about  the  year  1681  or  1682. 
He  was  married  to  the  widow  of  Mr.  John  Graham,  provost  of  Glasgow.— Wod- 
row’s  Analecta,  vol.  iii.,  p.  55. 


78 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


and  pleasant  a relish  that  it  is  sweet  in  the  belly,  though  not 
pleasant  to  the  taste.  Yea,  he  hath  left  your  ladyship  still  upon 
the  stage  (after  that  worthy  hath  been  honorably  dismissed  and 
taken  off  with  the  approbation  of  ‘Well  done,  good  and  faithful 
servant,’  leaving  his  name  for  a blessing  to  the  chosen  of  the 
Lord,  and  having  given  a noble  example  of  suffering  with  joyful- 
ness, and  of  resisting  unto  blood,  striving  against  sin ; a mercy 
which  few  are  like  to  find  in  this  generation,  wherein  there  is  so 
strong  a propension  amongst  all  sorts  to  wrong  the  cause  and 
wound  their  conscience  before  they  endanger  their  persons),  I 
say,  your  ladyship  is  left  still  upon  the  stage,  not  only  to  act  pa- 
tience, and  let  it  have  its  perfect  work  as  to  what  is  past,  and 
give  the  world  a proof  that  the  grace  of  God  can  make  a person 
endure  as  one  whom  affliction  can  not  make  miserable,  whereas 
one  void  of  such  a supporting  principle,  would  in  that  case  carry 
as  if  they  thought  they  lived  for  no  other  purpose  but  to  see  them- 
selves miserable  ; but  that  you  may  act  the  faith  and  patience  of 
the  saints  as  to  what  is  present,  and  in  regard  to  what  is  ap- 
proaching, arming  yourself  with  Christian  courage  and  resolu- 
tion how  to  carry  when  ye  shall  see  grief  added  to  your  sorrow, 
while  ye  behold  that  beautiful  house  wherein  our  fathers  and  we 
worshipped,  thrown  down,  and  nothing  left  of  all  that  goodly 
fabric  but  sonfe  dark  vestiges,  to  be  wept  over  by  them  that  take 
pleasure  in  the  stones,  and  favor  the  dust  of  Zion.  This  calls 
your  ladyship  some  way  to  forget  the  decay  and  (in  the  world’s 
account,  wherein  things  get  not  their  right  names),  disgrace  of 
your  ever  honorable  family  and  father’s  house,  but  now  more  hon- 
orable than  ever,  that  ye  may  remember  to  weep  with  Zion,  and 
lament  because  the  glory  is  departed.  O the  sad  days  that  your 
ladyship  is  like  to  see  if  He  do  not  shut  your  eyes  in  death,  and 
receive  you  in  amongst  the  company  of  them  who  have  come  out 
of  great  tribulation,  and  can  weep  no  more  because  they  see 
God  ! As  for  your  ladyship’s  through-bearing  in  this  backsliding 
time,  trust  him  with  that,  who  hath  everlasting  arms  underneath 
you  to  bear  you  up  when  ye  have  no  legs  to  walk.  Hitherto  hath 
he  helped,  and  he  will  not  lose  the  glory  of  what  he  hath  done 
by  leaving  you  now  to  faint  and  fall  off.  He  will  not  give  over 
guiding  you  by  his  counsel  till  he  have  brought  you  to  glory,  and 
put  you  beyond  hazard  of  misguiding  yourself.”* 

Another  of  her  relatives  who  suffered  from  the  iniquity  of  the 
times  was  Lord  Lorn,  the  eldest  son  of  her  brother,  the  marquis 
of  Argyll.  Lorn,  naturally  indignant  at  the  cruel  treatment  which 

^ Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  Iviii.,  folio,  No.  53. 


LADY  KENMURE, 


79 


his  father  and  family  had  received  at  the  hands  of  the  parliament, 
gave  free  expression  to  his  sentiments  in  a confidential  letter  he 
sent  to  his  friend,  Lord  Duffus.  This  letter  being  intercepted  and 
carried  to  Middleton,  that  unprincipled  statesman  resolved  to  make 
it  the  foundation  of  a capital  charge  against  him.  Disappointed 
in  his  hope  of  obtaining  the  estate  of  the  marquis  of  Argyll, 
w^hich  through  the  intercession  of  Lauderdale  was  gifted  to  Lord 
Lorn,  who  had  married  Lauderdale’s  lady’s  niece,  Middleton 
thought  he  had  now  found  a favorable  opportunity  of  getting  into 
his  rapacious  grasp  the  spoils  of  the  Argyll  family.  According- 
ly, he  laid  the  letter  before  the  estates  of  parliament,  which  voted 
it  treasonable,  and  sent  information  to  his  majesty,  with  a desire 
that  Lorn,  who  was  then  in  London,  should  be  secured  and  sent 
down  to  Scotland  to  stand  trial  before  the  parliament.  Lorn  was 
ordered  to  return  to  Scotland,  though,  at  the  intercession  of  Lau- 
derdale, who  personally  became  bail  for  his  appearance,  he  was 
not  sent  down  as  a prisoner ; and  arriving  in  Edinburgh  on  the 
17th  of  July,  1662,  he  was  immediately  charged  to  appear  at  the  bar 
of  the  house  on  the  afternoon  of  that  day ; which  he  did.  That 
same  night  he  was  committed  prisoner  to  the  castle,  and  on  the 
26th  of  August  was  sentenced  to  be  beheaded,  and  his  lands,  goods, 
and  estate  forfeited,  for  treasonable  speeches  and  writings  against 
the  parliament ; the  time  of  the  execution  of  the  sentence  being 
remitted  to  the  king.  He  lay  in  prison  in  the  castle  till  Middle- 
ton’s fall,  when  he  was  liberated,  in  June,  1663,  and  was  soon 
after  restored  to  his  grandfather’s  estate,  with  the  title  of  earl  of 
Argyll.*  During  the  time  of  Lorn’s  imprisonment,  M^Ward 
wrote  to  Lady  Kenmure  a letter,  in  which,  among  other  things, 
he  particularly  animadverts  upon  this  additional  instance  of  the 
injustice  and  cruelty  exercised  toward  the  noble  house  of  Argyll. 
The  portion  of  it  relating  to  Lorn’s  imprisonment,  may  be  quoted, 
as,  besides  containing  a vindication  of  the  prisoner’s  father,  the 
marquis  of  Argyll,  and  describing  the  true  character  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  that  unprincipled  government,  it  illustrates  the  pious 
and  patriotic  spirit  of  this  noble  lady.  “ The  men,”  says  he, 
“ who  have  sold  themselves  to  work  wickedness  in  the  sight  of 
the  Lord,  have  stretched  forth  their  hand  against  your  ladyship’s 
honorable  and  truly  noble  family.  They  made  that  worthy  whose 
name  is  savory  among  his  people,  the  butt  of  their  malice,  and 
as  if  that  had  not  been  enough,  they  persecute  with  deadly  malice 
his  honorable  and  hopeful  posterity,  that  their  name  may  be  no 

* Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  i.,  pp.  297,388;  Aikman’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  500; 
Row's  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  469. 


80 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


more  in  remembrance.  But  have  they  slain  and  also  taken  pos- 
session ? and  will  he  not  bring  evil  upon  them  and  their  posterity 
for  this,  and  for  the  provocation  wherewith  they  have  provoked 
him  to  anger  and  made  Israel  to  sin  ? But  what  wonder  that 
they  have  stretched  forth  their  hand  against  his  worthies,  who 
have  been  honored  to  be  singularly  useful  and  instrumental  in  his 
work,  when  it  is  come  to  this,  that  in  a land  solemnly  sworn 
away  to  God,  the  Son  of  Man  hath  not  so  much  left  him,  even 
by  law,  as  whereupon  to  lay  his  head,  except  it  be  upon  a cold 
stone  in  a prison ! We  have  laws  now  framed  by  the  throne  of 
iniquity  and  in  force,  and  by  these  laws  he  must  die  or  be  driven 
away.  The  men  who  have  taken  first  the  life  and  then  the  lands 
of  him  whom  God  hath  taken'  off  the  stage  with  so  much  true 
honor  ; they  have  spoiled  Christ  also  of  his  prerogative,  and  say, 
by  what  they  do,  ‘ This  man  shall  not  reign  over  us,  we  have  no 
king  but  Caesar and  his  people  of  their  privilege,  saying  to 
them,  ‘ Bow  down  that  we  may  go  over  you.’  I believe,  while 
your  ladyship  remembers  these  last,  ye  forget  the  first : how- 
ever, your  ladyship,  and  all  the  rest  of  his  honorable  relations, 
may  be  confident  and  comforted  in  the  hope  of  it,  when  he  comes 
to  count  with  these  men  and  cause  them  answer  for  that  laese- 
majesty  whereof  they  are  guilty  against  God,  he  will  make  in- 
quisition for  blood,  yea,  that  blood,  and  make  them  sensible  how 
sadly  he  resents  the  injuries  done  to  that  house,  and  will,  if  ever 
he  build  up  Zion  and  appear  in  his  glory  in  the  land  (as  I desire 
to  believe  he  will),  restore  the  honor  of  that  family  with  such  a 
considerable  overplus  of  splendor,  as  shall  make  them  who  see 
it  say,  ‘ Verily,  there  is  a reward  for  the  righteous  ; verily,  he  is 
a God  that  judgeth  in  the  earth.”  But,  madam,  I know,  since 
God  hath  learned  to  prefer  Jerusalem  to  your  chief  joy  (a  rare 
mercy  amid  a generation  who  are  crying,  ‘ Rase  it,  rase  it,  even 
to  the  foundation’),  that  ye  forget  to  sorrow  for  your  fathers  house, 
and  weep  when  ye  remember  Zion  ; it  no  doubt  makes  your  sigh- 
ing come  before  ye  eat  to  see  the  ruins  of  that  so  lately  beauti- 
ful fabric  wherein  ye,  with  the  rest  of  his  people,  worshipped. 
Who  can  be  but  sad  that  hath  the  heart  of  a child  to  consider 
how  the  songs  of  the  sanctuary  are  turned  into  howling  ?”* 

From  the  allusion  in  the  last  sentence  quoted,  the  reader  will 
perceive  that,  at  the  time  when  this  letter  was  written,  the  pres- 
byterian  church  of  Scotland  had  been  overthrown.  Charles  II., 
had  got  it  into  his  head  that  presbytery  was  not  a religion  for  a 
gentleman, — an  opinion  of  which  the  foundation  no  doubt  was, 
Wodrow,  MSS.,  vol.  Iviii.,  folio,  No.  59. 


LADY  KENMURE. 


81 


what  a young  monarch  of  licentious  morals  could  not  easily  brook, 
the  strict  surveillance  which  the  presbyterian  church  exercised 
over  the  manners  of  all  her  members  without  respect  of  persons  ; 
and  no  sooner  was  he  restored  to  his  throne  than  he  and  the  base 
men  selected  by  him  for  his  counsellors,  were  determined  not  to 
suffer  the  offence  and  reproach  of  such  an  ill-bred  religion  to  re- 
main in  the  land,  no,  not  even  in  the  form  of  a dissenting  body. 
Nor  was  it  by  gradual  encroachments  that  they  resolved  to  sap 
the  foundations  of  the  Scottish  presbyterian  church.  Too  im- 
patient to  wait  the  operation  of  slow  and  insidious  measures, 
they  proceeded  openly,  summarily,  and  by  violence.  Such  min- 
isters as  did  not  conform  against  a certain  day  were  to  be  uncer- 
emoniously ejected.  No  soft  words  were  to  be  employed,  no 
gentle  acts  of  persuasion  were  to  be  resorted  to  with  the  view 
of  bringing  them  to  submission.  The  law,  with  its  severe  pen- 
alties, which  were  deemed  a sufficient  argument,  was  promulgated, 
and,  stern  and  unbending,  it  was  to  take  its  course  on  all  the 
disobedient.  The  majority  of  the  ministers  conformed,  though 
they  had  sworn  against  prelacy  ; but  a noble  army  of  nearly  four 
hundred  of  them  refused  compliance,  preferring  to  suffer  rather 
than  to  part  with  their  integrity.  They  were  in  consequence 
driven  from  their  people,  who  were  thus  deprived  of  the  ordin- 
ances of  the  gospel,  and  who  mourned  the  loss  of  their  faithful 
pastors  as  a family  bereavement. 

To  this  calamitous  state  of  things  M‘Ward,  in  the  same  letter, 
proceeds  to  advert  more  particularly.  He  dwells  upon  the  sor- 
row which  he  knew  Lady  Kenmure  felt  because  her  ear  did  not 
hear  the  joyful  sound,  nor  her  eyes  see  her  teachers,  and  that 
she  was  not  now  made  glad  in  the  sanctuary,  as  in  former  days, 
when  she  had  been  abundantly  satisfied  with  the  fatness  of  God’s 
house,  and  made  to  drink  with  delight  of  the  rivers  of  his  pleas- 
ure, his  banner  over  her  being  love.  ‘You  have  now  known 
of  a long  time,”  says  he,  “ what  it  is  to  live  and  almost  languish 
in  a dry  and  thirsty  land  v^^here  no  water  is,  where  all  the  streams 
of  creature  contentments  have  been  dried  up,  and  diverted  by  the 
scorching  heat  of  fiery  trials.  But  this,  I know,  is  the  hardest 
and  heaviest  of  all,  that  the  streams  of  the  sanctuary  which  did 
refresh  the  city  of  God  are  dried  up,  and  that  these  ordinances 
of  life  in  the  use  whereof  God  doth  ordinarily  set  forth  and  impart 
much  of  his  loving  kindness,  which  is  better  than  life,  are  taken 
away  from  you.”  And  he  concludes  by  observing  that,  “ though 
he  knew  it  to  be  grieving  to  her  to  see  the  faithful  feeders  put 
from  their  work,  and  God’s  house  of  prayer  turned  into  a den  of 


82 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


thieves,  who  come  not  in  by  the  door,  and  how  the  valley  of  vision 
was  become  a dungeon  of  Egyptian  darkness,”  yet  that  it  would 
comfort  her  in  a great  measure,  notwithstanding  all  that  had 
happened,  if  she  saw  “ the  ministers  of  the  Lord  zealous  and 
carrying  like  men  of  understanding  who  knew  the  times  and 
what  Israel  ought  to  do,  and  not  as  asses  crouching  between  the 
burdens.”* 

In  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  the  ministers  ejected  from  their 
charges  for  nonconformity.  Lady  Kenmure  took  a deep  interest, 
being  warmly  attached  to  the  cause  in  which  they  suffered. 
Their  integrity  and  conscientiousness  in  renouncing  their  livings 
rather  than  do  violence  to  their  conscience,  excited  both  her  ap- 
proval and  admiration  ; and  if  she  could  not  restore  them  to  the 
places  from  which  they  were  extruded,  she  was  willing,  accord- 
ing to  her  ability,  to  mitigate  the  privations  and  hardships  of 
their  lot.  After  the  death  of  her  son,  Lord  Viscount  Kenmure, 
and  of  her  second  husband,  the  Honorable  Sir  Henry  Montgom- 
ery of  Giffen,  her  pecuniary  means  were  indeed  much  reduced, 
but  having  devoted  herself  and  her  all  to  the  Savior  who  redeemed 
her,  she  was  liberal  in  communicating  even  beyond  her  ability 
to  the  necessities  of  the  suffering  presbyterian  ministers ; and 
these  acts  of  benevolence  and  generosity,  which  she  felt  to  be 
sacred  duties,  she  performed  with  a readiness  and  an  alacrity 
corresponding  to  the  deep  sense  she  had  of  a Savior’s  love.  Mr. 
Robert  M‘Ward,  among  others,  was  a sharer  of  her  bounty.  She 
frequently  sent  remittances  to  him  in  his  straits  when  he  was  in 
Holland,  of  which  he  makes  grateful  mention  in  most  of  his  let- 
ters to  her,  as  well  as  refers  to  her  profuse  beneficence  toward 
others  who  suffered  for  righteousness’  sake,  and  who  were  in 
needy  circumstances.  In  one  of  his  letters  to  her,  without  date, 
but  which,  as  appears  from  internal  evidence,  was  written  sub- 
sequently to  the  martyrdom  of  the  marquis  of  Argyll,  and  from 
Holland,  after  apologizing  for  taking  the  liberty  of  writing  to  her, 
he  says,  “ It  flows  from  an  affectionate  respect  which  your  lady- 
ship’s undeserved  kindness  and  bounty  toward  me  in  my  strait 
(whereof  I hope  to  cease  to  be  sensible,  and  cease  to  be,  together), 
hath  made  a debt  which  I can  never  forbear  to  acknowledge 
(though  I am  not  in  case  to  requite  it)  without  the  imputation  of 
baseness  and  ingratitude.’*!  In  another  letter  to  her  from  Rot- 
terdam, in  1668,  he  writes,  “Your  ladyship  hath  put  me  oft  to 
seek  what  to  say,  but  never  more  than  by  your  last.  I am  truly 
at  a loss  for  words  to  express  myself  about  it ; and  I can  assure 
* Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  Iviii.,  folio,  No.  59,  t Ibid.,  No.  53. 


LADY  KENMURE. 


83 


you,  madam,  that  it  was  a trouble  to  me  to  think  how  prodigal 
ye  have  been  toward  me  at  such  a time.  When  I know  well 
what  the  riches  of  your  liberality  are  to  others,  and  how  much 
they  who  should  give  you  what  God  hath  made  your  own  pinch 
you  in  withholding  what  they  onght  to  give,  what  shall  I say  ? 
but  I see  I must  be  among  the  rest,  and  with  the  first  of  them, 
who  bear  record  of  your  doing  even  beyond  power ; and  to  make 
it  appear  that  ye  have,  in  the  first  place,  given  your  ownself  unto 
the  Lord,  ye  give,  in  the  second  place,  yourself  and  whatever 
,God  hath  given  you,  to  those  whom  ye  suppose  to  have  given 
themselves  to  God.  Madam,  when  I can  neither  requite  these 
high  favors  nor  deserve  them,  I desire  to  have  a complacency  in 
the  thoughts  of  what  a rich  reward  abides  you  from  him  who  is 
faithful  and  will  never  forget  your  work  and  labor  of  love  showed 
toward  his  name.  If  he  will  not  forget  a cup  of  cold  water, 
which  is  given  by  the  hand  of  him  who  boiled  it  before  he  gave 
it,  in  the  fire  of  love  to  God  which  burns  in  his  bosom,  how  much 
more  must  these  great  givings  be  an  odor  of  a sweet  smell,  a 
sacrifice  acceptable,  and  well-pleasing  unto  God  !”*  Mr.  John 
Carstairs,  minister  of  the  high  church  of  Glasgow  at  the  Resto- 
ration, had  also  received  tokens  of  her  good  will.  In  a letter  to 
his  wife.  May  27,  1664,  from  Ireland,  whither  he  had  fled  to  es- 
cape persecution,  he  says  : “ Present  my  humble  service  and 
tenderest  respects  to  my  noble  lady  Kenmure.  The  Lord  re- 
member and  graciously  reward  all  her  labor  of  love  !”t 

Mr.  M‘Ward  having  come  to  London  about  the  year  1669, 
resolved  to  visit  some  of  his  friends  in  Scotland,  and  among 
others  Lady  Kenmure.  In  a letter  to  her,  without  date,:};  but 
which  was  probably  written  from  Edinburgh  about  the  close  of 
the  year  1669,  or  the  beginning  of  the  year  1670,  after  informing 
her  that  in  the  beginning  of  winter  he  was  advised  by  friends  to 
withdraw  from  London,  which  he  did  after  he  had  kept  himself 

* Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  Iviii.,  folio,  No.  54. 

t Letters  of  Mr  John  Carstairs,  &c.,  edited  by  the  Rev.  William  Ferrie,  Anstra- 
ther  Easter,  p.  120. 

t The  following  extract  from  a letter  of  M‘ Ward’s  to  Mr.  John  Carstairs,  but 
without  date,  may  assist  us  in  determining  the  time  when  this  letter  was  written 
to  Lady  Kenmure.  Speaking  of  Mr.  John  Dickson,  M'Ward  says,  “ I have  neither 
seen  nor  written  to  him  since  the  time  I went  first  down  with  you  to  Scotland  (if  I 
be  not  mistaken),  when  that  wretched  indulgence  had  its  birth  (when  will  we  see 
its  burial!)” — (Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  Ivii.,  folio.  No.  15).  The  only  difficulty  here  is 
whether  M‘Ward  refers  to  the  first  indulgence,  granted  in  July,  1669,  or  to  the  sec- 
ond, granted  in  September,  1672.  But  from  an  allusion  to  his  visiting  Lady  Ken- 
mure, apparently  when  he  visited  Scotland,  contained  in  a letter  to  her,  dated 
March  5, 1672,  more  than  six  months  before  the  second  indulgence  had  an  existence 
(see  p . 84),  it  is  highly  probable  that  be  refers  to  the  first. 


84 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


almost  a prisoner  for  some  time,  and  that  thereafter  he  had  stayed 
in  another  place  in  England  longer  than  he  intended,  he  says : 
“ The  condition,  the  sad  condition  of  this  poor  remnant,  together 
with  the  desire  I had  once  more  to  see  some  few  friends,  among 
whom  I particularly  intended  to  wait  upon  your  ladyship  at  con- 
veniency,  made  me  adventure  to  come  to  this  place.  I have 
desired  the  bearer*  (who  is  the  only  minister,  save  one  other, 
residing  in  this  city  to  whom  I have  yet  made  myself  known)  to 
inquire  at  your  ladyship  when,  without  being  a trouble  or  dis- 
turbance to  you,  I may  wait  upon  you.”  He  adds  : “ Madam,  I 
have  had  some  account  from  him  of  your  condition,  and  though  I 
know  that  the  things  which  ye  see  and  hear  and  daily  find  are 
enough  to  make  your  ladyship  long  for  a pass,  that  after  all  your 
inward  trouble  and  outward  tossings,  your  tried  and  weary  soul 
may  rest  in  his  everlasting  embraces,  after  whom  ye  have  been 
made  to  pant,  and  for  whose  coming  ye  are  now  looking ; yet  I 
can  not  deny  but  that  1 am  so  cruel  as  to  be  content  that  your 
ladyship  is  yet  with  us  to  weep  and  sigh  over  the  dust  of  Zion ; 
yea,  I am  confident  you  will  be  content  to  suspend  your  everlast- 
ing satisfaction,  which  is  made  sure  to  you,  for  some  years  or 
days,  if  you  may  be  but  helped,  now  when  the  strength  of  the 
bearers  of  burdens  is  gone,  to  lift  up  a prayer  for  a fallen  church, 
and  to  grieve  over  our  departed  glory. ”t 

On  receiving  this  communication.  Lady  Kenmure  lost  no  time 
in  intimating  to  her  old  friend  and  valued  correspondent  when  he 
might  wait  upon  her,  and  in  giving  him  to  understand  how  wel- 
come would  be  the  sight  and  converse  of  one  who  had  suffered 
for  his  Master,  and  by  whose  letters  she  had  been  instructed  and 
comforted.  Their  meeting  was  agreeable  and  refreshing  to  them 
both.  In  M^Ward  she  found  one  who  had  the  tongue  of  the 
learned,  and  who  could  speak  a word  in  season  to  them  that 
were  weary.  In  her  he  found  a Christian  who,  trained  in  the 
school  of  affliction,  had  attained  to  no  ordinary  degree  of  emi- 
nence in  the  Christian  graces,  and  who  seemed  to  feel  more 
deeply  the  distressed  state  of  the  church  than  the  bodily  infirmi- 
ties which  were  pressing  her  down  to  the  dust.  To  this  visit 
he  seems  to  refer  in  a letter  which  he  addressed  to  her  from 
Rotterdam,  March  5,  1672,  in  which  he  mentions  it  as  one  thing 
“ which  did  often  refresh  and  comfort  him  concerning  the  reality 
and  greenness  of  the  grace  of  God  in  her,  when  he  had  occasion 
to  see  her  upon  her  bed  of  languishing,  namely,  his  finding  that 
notwithstanding  of  all  these  weights  and  pressures  of  bodily  infirm- 
* Probably  Mr.  John  Carstaire.  t Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  Iviii.,  folio,  No.  57. 


LADY  KENMUDE. 


85 


ities  under  which  her  outward  man  was  wasting,  yet  Zion  and 
the  concerns  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  had  a chief  place  in  her 
thoughts,  she  resolving  to  prefer  his  interests  to  her  chief  joy 
and  greatest  sorrows.”^ 

Lady  Kenmure  was  now  far  advanced  in  years,  and  during 
her  lengthened  life  she  had  seen  many  changes  in  the  beloved 
church  of  her  native  land.  She  had  beheld  the  triumph  of  its 
liberties  after  a protracted  struggle  of  many  years,  over  the  arbi- 
trary power  of  princes,  and  had  seen  the  banner  of  the  covenant 
unfurled  and  floating  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  Scot- 
land. She  had  again  witnessed  these  liberties  prostrated  and 
trampled  in  the  dust  by  a monarch  who  was  sworn  to  maintain 
them,  and  a grinding  persecution  carried  on  against  such  as, 
faithful  to  their  covenant  engagement,  scorned  to  surrender  them. 
But  time,  with  its  many  changes,  so  far  from  altering,  had  only 
served  to  confirm  her  original  sentiments  on  ecclesiastical  ques- 
tions. The  good  old  cause  was  still  the  good  old  cause  for  her. 
‘‘Madam,”  says  M‘Ward  in  the  letter  last  quoted,  “as  it  hath 
been  observed  by  many  of  your  intimate  Christian  acquaintance 
that  this  hath  been  a piece  of  his  gracious  kindness  to  you  to 
keep  you  still  upon  his  side  in  an  evil  tim.e,  and  to  warm  your 
soul  into  a good  degree  of  holy  heat  and  jealousy  for  God,  his 
concerns,  crown,  and  kingdom ; so  he  continues  to  be  gracious 
to  you  in  this  matter  still,  and  to  make  you  a comfort  to  such  who 
take  pleasure  in  the  dust  of  Zion.  How  great  a mercy  is  this 
when  the  breath  of  most  men,  the  breath  of  most  professors,  nay, 
alas,  the  breath  of  most  ministers,  who  by  their  fervor  should 
warm  the  souls  of  others,  is  so  cold  that  it  doth  plainly  discover 
a falling  from  first  love,  and  a want  of  divine  zeal  for  him,  and 
fervent  desire  for  the  coming  of  his  kingdom  in  the  world  ! This 
which  he  hath  given  you  is  a pearl  of  great  price,  a jewel  of 
more  value  than  the  whole  universe,  nay,  this  is  something  above 
the  reality  of  grace,  and  beyond  every  exercise  of  real  grace. 
This  is  to  carry  like  your  father’s  child,  when  the  coming  of  his 
kingdom  is  the  inward  echo  of  your  soul.”t 

The  precise  date  of  Lady  Kenmure’s  death  we  have  not  been 
able  to  ascertain.  She  was  alive  in  August,  1672,  for  when  Mr. 
John  Livingstone,  who  died  on  the  19th  of  August  that  year,  was 
giving  some  of  his  friends  an  account  of  God’s  goodness  to  him 
during  the  course  of  his  earthly  pilgrimage  the  day  before  his 
death,  and  recounting  it  as  one  of  the  divine  mercies  conferred 
upon  him  that  he  had  been  acquainted  with  many  eminent  Chris- 

* Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  Iviii.,  folio,  No.  62.  t Ibid.,  folio,  Iviii.,  No.  62. 

8 


86 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


tians  in  his  youth,  he  named  two,  the  tutor  of  Bonnington,  and 
Lady  Kenmure,  “ who  is,”  said  he,  “ the  oldest  Christian  ac- 
quaintance I have  now  alive.”  But  she  was  at  that  time  in  so 
very  weak  and  infirm  a state  of  health  that  M‘Ward,  in  a letter 
to  her  dated  August  30,  1672,  expresses  his  fears  that  it  might 
possibly  be  his  last  letter  to  her,  and  whether  it  might  come  to 
her  or  find  her  in  the  land  of  the  living.* 

It  would  no  doubt  be  interesting  to  know  the  circumstances 
connected  with  the  last  sickness  and  death  of  a lady  so  eminent 
for  piety  ; but  these  have  not  been  transmitted  to  posterity.  We 
have,  however,  traced  her  from  early  life  to  advanced  age,  and 
we  have  seen  throughout  that  whatsoever  things  are  true,  honest, 
just,  pure,  lovely  and  of  good  report,  on  these  things  she  thought, 
and  these  things  she  practised.  Although,  then,  we  lose  sight 
of  her  at  the  closing  scene,  we  may  be  sure  that  the  light  of 
heaven  rested  upon  it,  dispelling  the  darkness  of  death  and  the 
grave  ; and  whether  she  gave  utterance  to  the  triumphant  excla- 
mation of  the  apostle  Paul,  in  the  prospect  of  his  departure,  or 
no,  that  exclamation  from  her  dying  lips  would  have  been  an 
appropriate  close  to  a life  which  so  eminently  exemplified  the 
Christian  graces — faith,  purity,  humility,  charity — “ I have  fought 
a good  fight,  I have  kept  the  faith : henceforth  there  is  laid  up 
for  me  a crown  of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the  righteous 
judge,  shall  give  me  at  that  day : and  not  to  me  only,  but  unto 
all  them  also  that  love  his  appearing.” 


LADY  MARGARET  DOUGLAS, 

MARCHIONESS  OF  ARGYLL. 

Lady  Margaret  Douglas  was  descended  from  a noble  family, 
of  no  inconsiderable  antiquity  and  renown.  Her  great-grandfa- 
ther, William  Douglas,  sixth  earl  of  Morton,  was  “ a nobleman 
who  inherited  the  magnanimity  of  the  Douglases,  tempered  by 
the  milder  virtues  of  his  illustrious  relative,  the  regent  Murray. 
His  public  conduct  was  marked  by  independence.  While  he 
maintained  all  the  hospitality  and  even  magnificence  of  the  an- 
cient barons,  his  domestic  arrangements  were  conducted,  and  his 
fine  family  reared  up,  in  accordance  with  the  purity  of  his  mor- 

^ Wodrow  MSS.,  vol  Iviii.,  folio,  No.  63. 


MARCHIONESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


87 


als,  and  the  strict  regard  which  he  uniformly  showed  to  the  du- 
ties of  religion.  He  was  a warm  and  steady  friend  to  the  pres- 

byterian  church The  sickness,  which  soon  put  an  end  to 

his  days,  prevented  him  from  attending  in  his  place  at  Perth  ;* 
but  he  expressed  his  strong  disapprobation  of  the  act  restoring 
episcopacy,  and  with  his  dying  breath  predicted  the  evils  which 
it  would  entail  on  the  country.”!  Her  father,  William,  seventh 
earl  of  Morton,  who  was  born  in  1582,  and  served  heir  to  his 
father  on  the  3d  of  July,  1605,  was  a nobleman  of  good  natural 
talents,  which  were  highly  improved  by  a liberal  education,  and 
travels  in  foreign  parts.  Previous  to  the  breaking  out  of  the 
civil  wars,  occasioned  by  the  disputes  between  Charles  I.  and 
his  parliament,  the  earl  of  Morton  was  one  of  the  richest  and 
greatest  subjects  in  the  kingdom  , and  such  was  the  zeal  with 
which  he  espoused  the  royal  cause,  that,  to  enable  him  to  ad- 
vance money  for  its  support,  he  disposed  of  the  noble  property 
of  Dalkeith,  and  other  estates,  to  the  value  of  not  less  than  one 
hundred  thousand  pounds  Scots  of  annual  rent.  He  died  at  Ork- 
ney, on  the  7th  August,  1648,  in  the  sixty-sixth  year  of  his  age.J 
By  his  wife.  Lady  Anne  Keith,  eldest  daughter  of  George,  fifth 
earl  Marischall,  he  had  a numerous  offspring. 

Margaret,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  who  was  the  second 
daughter,  was  born  about  the  year  1610.  Of  her  youthful  years 
no  memorials  are  known  to  exist ; but  at  an  early  age  she  was 
married  to  Archibald,  Lord  Lorn,  afterward  eighth  earl  and  first 
marquis  of  Argyll,  a nobleman  of  eminent  piety,  and  a warm 
friend  of  the  presbyterian  interest,  to  which  he  adhered  with  un- 
wavering constancy,  and  for  which  he  at  last  was  honored  to  die 
a martyr.  She  also  was  distinguished  for  piety,  and  held  senti- 
ments on  ecclesiastical  and  religious  questions  similar  to  his. 
We  are  not  exactly  informed  as  to  the  time  and  circumstances 
in  which  either  of  them  became  the  subject  of  serious  religious 
impressions,  but  in  both  cases  it  appears  to  have  been  early. 
True  religion  shed  its  hallowed  and  ennobling  influence  over 
their  domestic  life,  sweetening  its  enjoyments  as  well  as  light- 
ening its  trials,  and  rendered  their  whole  deportment  a living 
epistle  of  Christ,  known  and  read  of  all  men.  It  was  the  custom 
of  the  marquis  to  rise  at  five  o’clock  in  the  morning,  and  to  con- 

^ The  reference  is  to  the  parliament  which  met  at  Perth,  in  August,  1606,  by 
which  the  bishops  were  restored  to  all  their  ancient  dignities  and  prerogatives. 

t M'Crie’s  Life  of  Melville,  vol.  ii.,  p.  220.  James  Melville  designates  him  “the 
guid  auld  earle  of  Mortoune.’’ — Melville’s  Diary,  p.  560.  See  also  Calderwood's 
History,  vol.  vi.,  p.  263. 

t Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  193,  274,  275 ; Row’s  History,  p.  470. 


88 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


tinue  in  private  till  eight  oxlock ; and,  besides  family  worship 
and  private  prayer  in  the  morning  and  evening,  he  usually  prayed 
with  his  lady  at  the  same  seasons,  his  valet  and  her  maid-servant 
being  present.*  How  beautiful  an  example  of  domestic  piety ! 
and  how  excellent  a means  of  training  that  pious  pair  for  acting 
a Christian  and  a noble  part  amid  those  tragic  scenes  through 
which  they  had  afterward  to  pass,  and  in  which  they  acquitted 
themselves  so  well ! Both  of  them,  too,  highly  valued  the  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel,  and  the  society  of  the  eminent  ministers  of 
their  day.  As  an  instance  of  this,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the 
well-known  Mr.  David  Dickson,  with  his  wife  and  children,  re- 
sided two  years  in  their  family  at  Inverary ; during  which  time 
Dickson  and  Mr.  Gordon,  the  minister  of  the  parish,  divided  the 
services  of  the  sabbath  between  them,  the  former  preaching  in 
the  forenoon,  and  the  latter  in  the  afternoon,  while  Mr.  Patrick 
Simpson  preached  on  the  Thursdays.! 

The  first  family  incident  we  meet  with  in  the  history  of  the 
marchioness  of  Argyll  is  a dangerous  illness  with  which  she  was 
attacked  at  the  time  of  her  first  confinement.  The  physicians 
who  attended  her,  when  consulted,  gave  it  as  their  opinion  that 
her  life  could  not  be  preserved  without  destroying  that  of  the 
child.  But  from  this  proposal  the  heart  of  the  mother  recoiled, 
and  on  no  consideration  would  she  give  her  consent.  In  the 
good  providence  of  God,  however,  the  life  both  of  the  mother 
and  of  the  infant  was  saved.  This  child  was  afterward  the  earl 
of  Argyll,  who  suffered  in  I685.;|: 

During  the  subsequent  part  of  her  life,  no  important  facts  are 
known,  till  we  come  to  the  severe  domestic  trials  which  she  was 
doomed  to  suffer.  These  we  shall  now  proceed  to  relate.  It 
has  been  said  that  every  pathetic  tale,  in  order  to  interest,  must 
have  a villain  to  boast  of — a principle  well  understood  by  the 
masters  of  tragedy,  who,  while  they  excite  our  sympathies  by 

* Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  i , p.  22.  Wodrow  received  this  information,  May  9, 
1702,  from  Mr.  Alexander  Gordon,  who  was  minister  of  Inverary  many  years  be- 
fore the  restoration  of  Charles  IL,  and  who  had  therefore  the  best  means  of  knowing. 
Mr.  Gordon  also  informed  him  that  when  the  marquis  went  abroad,  though  but  for 
one  night,  it  was  his  practice  to  take  with  him  his  note-book  and  inkstand,  with 
the  English  Notes  Bible  and  Newman’s  Concordance.  In  another  part  of  the  Ana- 
lecta, we  find  the  following  interesting  notice  relating  to  Argyll’s  conversion  : “ Mr. 
James  Stirling  tells  me  that  from  good  hands  he  had  it,  that  during  the  assembly  at 
Glasgow,  Mr.  Henderson  and  other  ministers  spent  many  nights  in  prayer  with  the 
marquis  of  Argyll,  and  that  he  dated  either  his  conversion,  or  the  knowledge  of  it, 
from  these  times.” 

t Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  i.,  p.  22.  Mr.  Gordon,  to  whom  Wodrow  was  in- 
debted for  tins  fact,  also  told  him  that  Argyll  always  took  notes  of  the  sermon. 

t Ibid.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  138. 


MARCHIONESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


69 


the  great  and  varied  distresses  of  the  personages  they  introduce 
upon  the  stage,  almost  never  fail  to  bring  prominently  forward 
some  character  of  deep  depravity  as  the  cause  of  these  distres- 
ses ; thus  enhancing  the  interest  of  the  scene,  'by  stirring  from 
their  depths  other  emotions  of  our  nature,  such  as  horror  and  in- 
dignation at  hypocrisy,  treachery,  cruelty,  and  other  forms  of 
vice,  which  may  be  elicited  in  the  drama.  Of  this  element  of 
interest  the  life  of  this  lady  is  not  destitute  ; and  Charles  II.  was 
the  evil  genius  who  broke  in  upon  its  peace  and  happiness. 

The  first  of  her  domestic  trials  which  we  shall  mention  is  the 
affecting  case  of  her  eldest  daughter.  Lady  Anne.  When  Charles 
II.  arrived  in  Scotland  in  the  year  1650,  Argyll,  though  during 
the  second  reformation,  and  down  to  that  year,  he  had  acted  a 
conspicuous  part  in  the  defence  of  the  presbyterian  cause,  and 
had  been  almost  dictator  of  Scotland,  yet  welcomed  him  with  the 
most  devoted  loyalty.  He,  however,  at  the  same  time,  told  him 
that  he  could  not  serve  him  as  he  desired  unless  he  gave  some 
decided  evidence  of  his  fixed  determination  to  support  the  pres- 
byterian party,  and  that  he  thought  this  would  be  best  done  by 
marrying  into  some  family  of  rank  known  to  be  entirely  devoted 
to  that  interest,  hinting  that  this  would,  in  a great  measure,  re- 
move the  prejudices  entertained  by  both  Scotland  and  England 
against  him  on  account  of  his  mother,  who  was  a papist,  and 
suggesting  his  own  daughter  as  the  most  proper  match  for  him.* 
How  strangely  does  the  ambition  of  worldly  honor  and  power 
sometimes  gain  the  ascendency  over  the  better  judgment  of  even 
wise  and  good  men  ! Argyll  must  have  known  enough,  and  more 
than  enough,  of  the  profligate  character  of  Charles,  to  convince 
him  that  in  projecting  such  a matrimonial  alliance,  he  was  ex- 
posing to  the  highest  peril  the  happiness  of  his  daughter  for  the 
prospect  of  gaining  her  the  glitter  of  a few  short  years  in  a cor- 
rupt court.  But  views  of  ambition,  and  not  the  happiness  of  his 
daughter,  were  the  motives  which  appear  to  have  guided  him  in 
this  matter.  Another  influence  bearing  on  his  mind  was  the 
principle  of  self-preservation.  Perceiving  that  should  those  men, 
whom  he  had  unavoidably  made  his  enemies  when  almost  dicta- 
tor of  Scotland,  be  raised  to  places  of  power  upon  the  accession 
of  Charles,  he  would  be  in  great  danger  of  falling  a sacrifice  to 
their  malice,  he  hoped  in  this  way  effectually  to  secure  himself 
from  all  such  peril. 

But  his  hopes  of  aggrandizement  or  safety  from  this  source 
were  castles  l3uilt  in  the  air,  and  they  were  destined  to  suffer  a 
*■  Douglas's  Peerage,  vol.  i.,  p.  97. 

8* 


90 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


severe  disappointment.  To  the  proposal  Charles  indeed  con- 
sented, and  promised  all  fidelity.  But  he  was  too  much  of  the 
cavalier  ; he  had  too  strong  a liking  for  the  malignant  party,  ever 
to  think  seriously  of  wedding  with  a presbyterian’s  daughter. 
His  promise  he  never  fulfilled,  and  he  never  intended  to  fulfil  it. 
The  consequences  to  the  accomplished  young  lady  were  very  dis- 
tressing. With  the  simple  and  unsuspecting  confidence  of  in- 
experienced youth,  she  relied  upon  his  honor  and  sincerity.  Her 
parents  had  not  taught  her  to  doubt  or  mistrust  him ; at  least  her 
father  had  not  done  so  ; and,  if  her  mother  had  warned  her  of  her 
danger,  she  heeded  it  not : and  when  Charles  disappointed  her 
— when  he  appeared  to  her  in  the  stern  reality  of  his  true  char- 
acter, a heartless  deceiver,  faithless  to  her  as  he  proved  to  the 
religion  he  had  sworn  to  maintain — her  mental  agitation  and  dis- 
tress became  great ; all  her  enchanting  and  fondly-cherished 
prospects  of  becoming  the  wife  of  Charles  and  queen  of  Britain, 
which  had  been  the  dream  of  her  young  imagination,  were  dissi- 
pated ; her  tenderest  affections  were  cruelly  lacerated  by  the 
object  around  which  they  were  entwined ; her  earthly  hopes  and 
happiness  seemed  extinguished  for  ever ; her  spirits  sunk,  and 
her  health  became  impaired  ; yea,  under  the  extreme  mental  agi- 
tation she  daily  and  hourly  experienced,  her  reason  itself  began 
to  reel,  and  she  at  last  became  quite  insane,  fit  only  “ to  point  a 
moral  or  adorn  a tale.” 

In  the  calamity  which  befell  his  daughter,  Argyll  had  too  much 
reason  for  self-reproach.  His  worldly  policy,  which  true  wisdom 
condemned,  while  it  accomplished  the  ruin  of  his  daughter,  was 
defeated  in  its  every  object.  Kirkton,  after  stating  that  the  mar- 
quis was  moved  to  strike  up  this  match  from  the  hope  of  securing 
himself  from  his  enemies,  and  that  all  the  poor  family  had  by 
the  bargain  was  a disappointment  so  grievous  to  the  poor  young 
lady,  that  of  a gallant  young  gentlewoman,  she  lost  her  spirit  and 
turned  absolutely  distracted,”  quaintly,  but  justly  adds,  “ so  un- 
fortunately do  the  back  wheels  of  private  designs  work  in  the 
puppet  plays  of  the  public  revolutions  in  the  world.”* 

This  was  a severe  and  a continued  living  trial  to  the  mar- 
chioness. Whether  she  was  favorably  disposed  toward  the  match 
we  are  not  informed,  although  there  is  reason  to  believe  she  was 
not,  and  that  she  entertained  fears  that  it  might  be  far  from  issu- 
ing in  the  happy  consequences  which  the  marquis  anticipated. 
We  know,  at  least,  that  plausible  and  insinuating  as  the  manners 
of  Charles  were,  she  formed  a very  low  opinion  of  his  character 

Kirkton’s  History,  p.  50. 


MARCHIONESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


91 


at  an  early  period,  indeed  long  before  its  dark  features  were  fully 
developed  or  discovered,  regarding  him  as  at  once  unprincipled, 
hypocritical,  and  revengeful.  This  will  appear  from  the  follow- 
ing anecdote,  which  rests  on  good  authority.  Charles,  after  he 
came  to  Scotland  and  was  crowned,  in  1650,  became  so  flagrantly 
lewd  in  his  conduct,  spent  so  large  a part  of  his  time  in  drinking, 
and  favored  malignants  so  much,  notwithstanding  his  having 
sworn  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  that  the  religious  peo- 
ple about  the  court  urgently  requested  Argyll  to  take  the  liberty 
of  freely  remonstrating  with  him.  Argyll,  who  had  waited  long 
for  such  an  opportunity,  did  so  one  sabbath  night  at  Stirling.  Af- 
ter supper,  he  went  in  with  his  majesty  to  his  closet,  and  there, 
with  much  freedom,  but,  at  the  same  time,  with  much  humility, 
laid  before  him  the  sinfulness  of  his  conduct.  Charles,  so  far 
from  appearing  to  be  offended,  seemed  serious,  and  even  shed 
tears  ; and  so  earnest  did  the  matter  to  all  appearance  become, 
that  they  prayed  and  mourned  together  till  two  or  three  o’clock 
in  the  morning.  The  marquis,  charitably  entertaining  the  most 
favorable  opinion  of  the  character  and  professions  of  Charles, 
was  disposed  to  congratulate  himself  upon  his  success  ; and  when 
he  came  home  to  his  lady,  who  was  surprised  at  his  absence, 
and  told  him  she  never  knew  him  stop  from  home  till  so  late  an 
hour,  he  said  that  he  had  never  passed  so  pleasant  a night  in  the 
world,  and  informed  her  of  all  that  took  place.  But  she  put  a very 
different  construction  upon  the  adventure,  and  drew  very  different 
conclusions  from  it.  She  believed  that  Charles  was  both  insin- 
cere and  vindictive  ; that  it  was  not  safe  to  remonstrate  with  him, 
and  that  her  husband  had  committed  an  offence  which  the  mon- 
arch would  never  forgive.  Such  was  her  belief,  and  she  freely 
expressed  it.  No  sooner  did  she  hear  of  Charles’s  professions 
of  sorrow,  and  of  the  tears  he  shed,  than  she  said  that  they  were 
“ crocodile  tears,”  and  that  what  the  marquis  had  done  that  night 
would  cost  him  his  head.  Nor  was  she  mistaken.  When  of- 
fended at  liberties  taken  to  reprove  him  for  his  conduct,  Charles 
possessed,  in  no  small  degree,  the  power  of  suppressing  the 
manifestation  of  his  feelings,  and  of  seeming  even  grateful  to  his 
monitor  ; but  freedoms  of  this  sort  he  was  not  accustomed  to  for- 
give, and  only  waited  his  opportunity  to  take  revenge.  From 
that  moment  he  bore  an  irreconcilable  hatred  to  the  marquis, 
though  the  royal  hypocrite,  in  addressing  him,  still  continued  to 
call  him  “ father and  so  deeply  did  he  cherish  a vindictive 
spirit  for  this  honest  admonition  that,  after  his  restoration,  he  ex- 
pressed his  resentment  of  it  to  some,  and  resolved  to  make  his 


92 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


reprover  the  first  victim  of  his  mortal  vengeance.*  Upon  what 
grounds  the  marchioness  came  to  such  a conclusion  respecting 
the  character  of  Charles,  we  do  not  know ; but  from  the  accuracy 
of  the  judgment  she  pronounced  upon  it,  she  must  have  discov- 
ered facts  concerning  him,  which,  painful  as  it  might  be  to  her 
to  entertain  such  suspicions  and  feelings  concerning  him,  con- 
firmed all  that  she  had  said. 

After  this  she  was  visited  with  a severe  illness,  which  threat- 
ened her  life,  as  appears  from  the  following  quotation  : — “ When 
the  king  resolved  to  march  into  England,  in  June,  1651,  the  res- 
olution was  opposed  by  Argyll,  with  reasons  of  no  inconsiderable 
strength.  But,  notwithstanding  this  disapprobation  of  the  meas- 
ure, he  would  have  gone  along  with  the  king,  had  not  his  lady 
been  lying  at  the  point  of  death.  This  induced  him  to  ask  per- 
mission to  remain  behind,  which  was  graciously  accorded,  and 
he  took  leave  of  the  king  at  Stirling.”!  From  this  illness,  how- 
ever, the  marchioness  recovered. 

No  additional  particulars  of  importance  occur  in  her  history 
till  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.  That  event,  which  was  hailed 
with  unbounded  joy  by  almost  all  Scotland,  she  could  hardly 
contemplate  with  any  other  feelings  than  those  of  alarm.  While 
others  were  giving  way  to  the  most  extravagant  rejoicings,  she 
must  have  felt,  from  what  she  knew  of  Charles,  that  she^  at  least, 
had  rather  cause  to  mourn  than  to  rejoice.  Aware  that  her  hus- 
band was  the  object  of  his  mortal  hatred,  for  the  reason  stated 
before,  as  well  as  on  other  accounts,  she  appears  to  have  enter- 
tained some  degree  of  anxiety  about  his  safety  ; to  have  felt  some 
forebodings  that  the  restoration  might  be,  what  it  actually  turned 
out  to  be,  the  cause  of  the  most  poignant  affliction  of  her  life. 
When  many  noblemen  and  gentlemen  from  Scotland  went  up  to 
London  in  1660,  to  congratulate  his  majesty  upon  his  happy  and 
safe  return  to  his  hereditary  throne,  the  marquis  sent  up  his 
eldest  son.  Lord  Lorn,  but  did  not  proceed  to  London  himself  till 
he  got  information  of  the  favorable  reception  of  his  son,  when  he 
was  encouraged  to  repair  to  the  capital.  From  this  it  is  evident 
that  the  family  had  the  impression  that  the  marquis  had  incurred 
the  displeasure  of  the  monarch,  and  entertained  some  apprehen- 
sion that  he  was  in  danger.  Nor  were  these  apprehensions  un- 

^ Wodrow's  Analecta,  vol.  i.,  p.  67.  Wodrow  introduces  this  and  another  anec- 
dote given  (p.  36),  thus: — **  November  11,  1705. — My  brother  tells  me  that  he  has 
the  accounts  of  the  marquis  of  Argyll  from  Mr.  Hastie,  who  had  them  from  Mr. 
Neil  Gillies,  who  was  in  the  family  of  Argyll,  and  had  them  both  from  the  mar* 
chioness.”  See  also  Analecta,  vol.  ii.,  p.  145. 

t Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  i.,  p.  98. 


MARCHIONESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


93 


founded.*  No  sooner  did  Argyll  arrive  at  Whitehall,  which  was 
on  the  8th  of  July,  than,  with  an  angry  stamp  of  the  foot,” 
Charles  gave  orders  for  his  imprisonment.  He  was  instantly 
hurried  to  the  Tower,  where  he  was  kept  close  prisoner  till 
toward  the  close  of  the  year,  when  he  was  sent  down  from  Lon- 
don, by  sea,  to  Edinburgh,  to  be  committed  prisoner  to  the  castle, 
and  tried  before  the  Scottish  parliament  for  high  treason.  His 
trial  commenced  on  the  13th  of  February,  1661,  when  his  indict- 
ment, consisting  of  fourteen  different  articles,  was  read,  in  which 
he  is  charged  with  calling,  or  causing  to  be  called,  the  conven- 
tion of  estates,  in  1643,  and  entering  into  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant  with  England ; with  protesting  in  parliament 
against  the  engagement  of  1648,  for  relieving  his  majesty 
Charles  1. ; with  raising  an  army  to  oppose  the  engagers  ; with 
corresponding  with  Cromwell,  and  submitting  to  the  common- 
wealth ; together  with  other  crimes,  which  were  either  a perver- 
sion or  misrepresentation  of  facts,  or  direct  calumnies,  as,  for 
instance,  that  he  had  been  accessory  to,  or  acquainted  with,  the 
design  of  the  murder  of  Charles  I.  These  were  the  ostensible 
grounds  of  the  proceedings  against  him ; but  it  was  private  and 
personal  reasons,  not  avowed,  which  impelled  the  actors  in  this 
tragedy.  Charles  IL,  as  we  have  seen,  hated  him  for  the  free- 
dom of  his  admonitions,  as  well  as  because  he  was  opposed  to 
the  malignants,  and  the  main  support  of  the  presbyterian  interest, 
of  which  he  proved  himself  the  uncompromising  champion  ; and 
this  hatred  was  deepened  from  the  wrong  which  Charles  was 
conscious  of  having  done  to  him  and  his  family  in  violating  his 
promise  of  marrying  Lady  Anne,  for  unprincipled  men  uniformly 
hate  those  whom  they  have  injured.  This  throws  a flood  of 
light  upon  the  conduct  of  Charles  toward  him ; it  explains  “ the 
angry  stamp  of  the  foot and  warrants  the  assertion  that  he 
“ died  a sacrifice  to  royal  jealousy  and  revenge.”!  Middleton, 
too,  who  was  his  majesty’s  commissioner  at  the  parliament, 
being  at  once  poor  and  avaricious,  expected  to  obtain  a grant  of 
the  estates  of  the  martyr,  and  hence  his  anxiety,  in  order  to  get 
them  forfeited,  and  thus  wrested  from  the  lawful  heirs,  that  the 
marquis  should  suffer  as  a regicide.  It  is  also  to  be  added,  that 

* As  a curious  instance  of  llie  superstitious  regard  paid  to  omens  at  that  time,  we 
maj’  quote  the  following  passage  from  Baillie’s  Letters.  Speaking  of  Argyll,  he 
says:  “My  good-son,  Mr.  Robert  Watson,  was  with  his  lady  in  Roseneath,  the 
night  the  king  landed  in  England.  He  told  me  all  the  dogs  that  day  did  take  a 
strange  howling  and  staring  up  to  my  lady’s  chamber  windows  for  some  hours 
together.” — duoted  in  Kirkton’s  History,  in  a note  by  the  Editor,  p.  107. 

t Kirkton’s  Histoiy,  pp.  69,  70. 


94 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


Middleton’s  associates  in  the  Scottish  government  desired  to 
divide  the  estates  among  themselves.*  Thus  it  was  determined 
on  all  hands  to  make  this  nobleman  a sacrifice. 

When  the  marquis  was  lying  a prisoner  in  the  castle,  the 
marchioness  entertained  the  worst  apprehensions  as  to  the  inten- 
tions of  his  enemies.  She  was  persuaded  that  .-they  would  be 
satisfied  with  nothing  less  than  his  life,  and  she,  therefore,  with 
a number  of  spirited  gentlemen,  entered  into  a plan  for  effecting 
his  escape.  In  the  execution  of  this  plan  she  herself  was  to  act 
the  principal  part.  On  visiting  him  she  was  to  put  on  his  clothes 
and  remain  in  prison,  while  he  was  to  put  on  hers  and,  thus 
disguised,  make  his  escape,  which  could  be  the  more  easily 
effected,  as  they  were  of  the  same  stature.  In  order  the  more 
effectually  to  remove  suspicion,  he  kept  bed  for  some  days,  as  if 
he  had  been  unwell,  and  one  day  when  she  came  in  a chair  to 
visit  him,  they  resolved  to  make  the  attempt.  Being  left  alone, 
they  proceeded  to  undress  and  exchange  each  other’s  clothes. 
This  done,  she  was  ready  to  remain  in  his  place,  whatever  she 
might  suffer  from  the  resentment  of  the  government.  But  her 
purpose  was  defeated  by  the  marquis  himself,  who,  when  about 
to  be  taken  out  in  the  chair,  on  a sudden  changing  his  mind, 
said  he  would  not  flee  from  the  cause  he  so  publicly  owned,  and 
throwing  aside  his  disguise,  put  on  his  own  clothes,  resolving  to 
suffer  the  uttermost. f Thus  she  left  the  prison  without  having 
effected  the  object  which  lay  so  near  her  heart.  What  she 
dreaded  was  soon  realized.  On  Saturday,  the  25th  of  May,  he 
was  sentenced  to  be  beheaded  at  the  cross  of  Edinburgh  for  high 
treason  on  Monday,  the  27th,  and  his  head  to  be  fixed  on  the 
west  end  of  the  tolbooth,  where  the  head  of  the  marquis  of  Mon- 
trose had  formerly  been  exhibited  as  a spectacle.  He  was  then 
sent  to  the  tolbooth  among  the  ordinary  prisoners  for  the  two 
short  days  allowed  him  to  prepare  for  death.;]; 

The  distress  of  the  marchioness  on  hearing  of  this  sentence  is 
not  to  be  described.  On  learning  where  he  was  to  be  confined 
during  the  brief  period  he  had  to  live,  she  hurried  to  the  prison 
in  order  to  meet  him.  She  was  there  before  he  reached  it,  and 
on  his  entrance  a most  affecting  interview  took  place  between 

^ Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  i.,  p 99.  Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  i , p.  131. 

t Kirkton’s  History,  p 103  Wodrow’s  History,  vol,  i . p.  152  Burnet’s  His- 
tory, vol.  i.,  p.  124.  Burnet  says,  that  when  the  marquis  was  going  into  the  v/hair, 
he  apprehended  he  should  be  discovered,  and  his  execution  hastened,  and  so  his 
heart  failed  him.” 

X Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  i.,  p.  150.  Sir  George  M'Kenzie’s  Memoirs  of  the 
Afers  of  Scotland,  p.  40. 


MARCHIONESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


95 


tliem.  “They  have  given  me  till  Monday,”  said  he,  on  seeing 
her,  “to  be  with  you,  my  dear,  therefore  let  us  make  for  it.” 
The  afflicted  wife,  in  the  agony  of  grief,  burst  into  ,a  flood  of 
tears,  and,  embracing  him,  exclaimed,  “ The  Lord  will  require 
it,  the  Lord  will  require  it.”  On  her  uttering  this  appeal  to  the 
justice  of  Heaven,  which  we  conceive  was  nothing  but  the  simple, 
unpremeditated,  and  instinctive  outburst  of  nature,  under  a sense 
of  such  unmerited  and  grievous  wrong,  and  which  neither  Chris- 
tian principle  nor  Christian  feeling  condemned,  a minister  pres- 
ent, doubtless  with  the  best  intentions,  gently  reminded  her  that 
we  should  not  be  revengeful,  to  whom  she  replied:  “We  need 
not  be  so,”  alluding  to  the  words  of  Paul,  “ Dearly  beloved,  avenge 
not  yourselves  but  rather  give  place  to  wrath ; for  it  is  written, 
Vengeance  is  mine,  I will  repay,  saith  the  Lord.”*  Her  distress, 
in  these  painful  circumstances,  was  so  deeply  affecting,  that  even 
the  bailie  who  accompanied  the  marquis  to  the  prison,  though 
no  great  friend  to  him,  was  softened  into  tears,  and  none  in  the 
room  could  refrain  from  giving  vent  in  a similar  way  to  their 
feelings.  Meanwhile  the  marquis,  though  at  first  he  wept  him- 
self, soon  became  perfectly  composed,  and  endeavored  to  comfort 
his  beloved  and  sobbing  wife.  “ Forbear,  forbear,”  said  he  affec- 
tionately to  her  ; “ truly  I pity  them  ; they  know  not  what  they 
are  doing : they  may  shut  me  in  where  they  please,  but  they 
can  not  shut  out  God  from  me  : for  my  part  I am  as  content  to 
be  here  as  in  the  castle,  and  as  content  in  the  castle  as  in  the 
Tower  of  London,  and  as  content  there  as  when  at  liberty;  and 
I hope  to  be  as  content  upon  the  scaffold  as  any  of  them  all.” 
He  added,  that  “ he  remembered  a scripture  cited  to  him  by  an 
honest  minister  lately  in  the  castle,  and  endeavored  to  put  it  in 
practice.  When  Ziklag  was  taken  and  burnt,  and  the  people 
spake  of  stoning  David,  he  encouraged  himself  in  the  Lord  his 
God.”t 

After  this  interview,  on  the  same  day,  the  marchioness  went 
down  to  the  abbey,  to  Middleton,  his  majesty’s  commissioner, 
to  endeavor  to  obtain  a reprieve.  The  object  in  asking  this 
reprieve,  no  doubt,  was  to  get  time  to  apply  to  the  king  for  a 
pardon.  But  when  it  is  considered  that  the  parliament,  of  which 
Middleton  was  the  moving  spring,  refused  to  accede  to  the 
request  which  the  marquis  made  when  at  the  bar  and  about  to 
receive  his  sentence,  that  the  sentence  should  not  be  executed 
till  ten  days  after  it  was  pronounced,  there  was  little  ground  to 

^ Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  i.,  p.  153.  Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxvii.,  folio,  No.  53. 

t Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  i.,  p.  152. 


96 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


hope  that  his  lady  would  succeed  in  obtaining  for  him  what  she 
sought.  But  where  his  life  was  involved  she  determined  to 
make  an  appeal  to  Middleton’s  pity,  if  not  to  his  sense  of  justice. 
She  accordingly  went  down  with  a heavy  heart  to  Holyrood 
house,  and  was  admitted  to  see  him.  He  had  been  drinking 
hard,  but  was  in  the  full  possession  of  his  reason,  and  received 
her  with  extreme  courtesy  and  kindness,  which  was  far  from 
his  usual  manner  of  receiving  supplicants,  and  it  seemed  as  if 
there  was  no  favor  which  he  would  be  unwilling  to  grant  at  her 
request.  Her  courteous  and  respectful  reception  might  perhaps 
awaken  in  her  for  a moment  hopes  that  he  would  commiserate 
her  case  ; but  she  had  a man  to  deal  with  whose  heart  was  never 
softened  by  compassion,  and  who  was  not  accustomed  to  show 
mercy.  When  she  proceeded  to  tell  him  her  errand,  pathetic  as 
was  the  appeal  she  made  in  behalf  of  her  condemned  husband, 
he  told  her  that  he  could  not  serve  her  in  that  particular  ; that  to 
do  so  would  be  as  much  as  his  life  was  worth ; and  that  though 
he  should  grant  her  what  she  so  earnestly  desired  it  would  be 
fruitless,  for  he  had  received  three  instructions  from  the  king 
which  he  was  imperatively  required  to  carry  into  effect : first,  to 
rescind  the  covenants ; secondly,  to  behead  the  marquis  of  Argyll ; 
and,  thirdly,  to  sheath  every  man’s  sword  in  his  brother’s  breast. 
The  proverb  is.  Post  vinum  veritas.  Middleton  had  thus  impru- 
dently betrayed  the  intentions  of  his  master  to  the  marchioness  ; 
and  the  following  day,  remembering  after  having  slept  off  his 
night’s  debauch,  what  he  had  said  to  her,  he  became  so  dejected 
that  for  several  days  he  was  not  to  be  spoken  with,  and  told  some 
of  his  friends  that  he  had  discovered  a part  of  his  secret  instruc- 
tions to  the  lady  of  Argyll  which  would  ruin  him.  But  she  took 
no  advantage  of  him,  having  told  this  only  to  Mr.  Gillies,  who, 
as  Wodrow  thinks,  was  waiting  on  her  at  that  time  ; and  accord- 
ingly it  went  no  farther.* 

From  what  Middleton  said  to  her  all  her  hopes  of  the  life  of 
the  marquis  were  lost.  She  perceived  that  his  death  had  been 
resolved  upon,  and  that  nothing  was  to  be  expected  either  from 
the  justice  or  the  compassion  of  the  men  who  were  now  at  the 
head  of  affairs,  and  who  were  carrying  things  with  such  a high 
hand.  Hastening  to  the  prison,  she  communicated  to  him  the 
unsuccessful  result  of  her  visit  to  the  palace.  But  painful  as  was 
this  death-blow  to  her  hopes  of  his  life,  it  was  in  some  degree 
consoling  to  her  that  he  was  prepared  for  the  fate  awaiting  him. 
She  found  him  not  agitated  with  fear,  nor  sinking  beneath  the 
Wodrow's  Analecta,  vol.  i,  pp.  67,  68.  See  Appendix,  No.  II. 


MARCHIONESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


97 


abject  influence  of  conscious  guilt,  but,  though  surrounded  by- 
prison  walls,  and  soon  to  undergo  an  ignominious  execution,  yet 
enjoying  that  serenity  and  joy  of  mind  which  conscious  inno- 
cence and  the  peace  of  God  never  fail  to  impart ; and  this  was 
the  more  remarkable  from  his  being  naturally  of  a timorous  dis- 
position. She  continued  with  him,  it  would  appear,  till  sabbath 
night,  when,  at  his  own  desire,  she  took  a last  farewell.* 

In  this  season  of  deep  distress,  the  marchioness,  like  a genu- 
ine child  of  God,  betook  herself  to  the  throne  of  grace  ; and  it 
is  an  interesting  trait  in  her  character  to  find  her  there  imploring 
from  Him,  who  “ is  a present  help  in  the  time  of  trouble,”  sup- 
port and  comfort,  not  so  much  for  herself,  as  for  her  beloved  hus- 
band, who,  though  guilty  of  no  crime,  was  so  soon  to  suffer  a 
traitor’s  death.  On  the  forenoon  of  the  day  on  which  he  was  to 
be  executed,  she  and  Mr.  John  Carstairs  were  employed  in  wrest- 
ling with  God  in  his  behalf,  in  a chamber  in  the  Canonsgate, 
earnestly  pleading  that  the  Lord  would  now  seal  his  charter  by 
saying  to  him,  “ Son,  be  of  good  cheer,  thy  sins  are  forgiven 
thee  !”  It  is  a striking  circumstance  that,  at  the  very  time  of 
their  being  thus  employed,  the  marquis,  while  engaged  in  set- 
tling some  worldly  affairs,  a number  of  persons  of  quality  being 
present  with  him,  was  visited  in  his  soul  with  such  a sense  of 
the  Divine  favor,  as  almost  overpowered  him ; and,  after  in  vain 
attempting  to  conceal  his  emotions  by  going  to  the  fire  and  be- 
ginning to  stir  it  with  the  tongs,  he  turned  about,  and  melting 
into  tears,  exclaimed,  “ I see  this  will  not  do  ; I must  now  declare 
what  the  Lord  has  done  for  my  soul ! He  has  just  now,  at  this 
very  instant  of  time,  sealed  my  charter  in  these  words,  ‘ Son,  be 
of  good  cheer,  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee  !’  ” This  comfortable 
state  of  mind  he  retained  to  the  last,  and  to  this  scene  he  allu- 
ded in  his  dying  speech  on  the  scaftbld.  Can  it  be  doubted  that 
the  bestowment  of  the  very  blessing,  prayed  for  by  this  devout 
lady  and  that  godly  minister  to  the  dying  martyr,  at  the  very  in- 
stant in  which  it  was  sought,  was  a signal  answer  to  their  believ- 
ing prayers  ?t 

Surviving  friends  have  naturally  a concern  that  due  honor  be 
paid  to  the  dead  in  the  form  of  a decent  and  respectable  funeral ; 
and  after  the  execution  of  this  noble  martyr,  the  marchioness 
was  anxious  that  due  homage  should  be  paid  to  his  mortal  re- 
mains. After  he  was  beheaded  his  headless  corpse  was  delivered 
to  those  friends,  noblemen,  and  others,  who,  at  his  desire,  were 
permitted  to  accompany  him  to  the  scaffold  and  be  present  with 

**  Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  i.,  p.  153.  t Wodrow's  Analecta,  vol.  ii.,  p.  148. 

9 


98 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


him  on  it ; and  they  carried  it  to  the  Magdalene  chapel,  where 
it  was  prepared  for  interment.  From  the  chapel  it  was  attended 
by  a numerous  company  of  friends,  in  funeral  procession,  to  Kil- 
patrick, thence  transported  by  water  to  Dunoon,  and  finally  de- 
posited in  its  last  resting-place,  in  the  family  burying-vault  at 
Kilmun.*  But  it  was  distressing  to  the  marchioness  to  think, 
that  the  head  of  the  marquis  was  exposed  as  a public  spectacle, 
and  she  was  extremely  desirous  that  it  should  be  removed,  and  in- 
terred with  the  rest  of  the  body.  With  this  view,  her  daughter, 
Lady  Mary,  countess  of  Caithness,  went  to  Middleton,  to  suppli- 
cate that  this  favor  might  be  granted  to  her  mother  and  the  fam- 
ily. But  he  received  her  in  a different  manner  from  that  in 
which  he  had  received  her  mother.  When  she  was  on  her 
knees  before  him,  begging,  with  all  the  tenderness  of  filial  piety, 
her  dead  father’s  head  to  be  buried,  he  brutally  threatened  to 
kick  her  with  his  foot  if  she  did  not  rise  and  depart  from  his 
presence.!  What  a picture  of  a man  (if  we  may  call  him  a man), 
who  could  thus  treat  with  cruel  and  wanton  insult  a lady,  in  cir- 
cumstances which,  one  might  think,  would  have  excited  compas- 
sion in  the  breast  of  a monster ! Argyll’s  head  continued  fixed 
on  the  west  end  of  the  tolbooth  till  1664,  when  a letter  came  from 
the  king  to  the  privy  council,  commanding  them  to  take  it  down, 
that  it  might  be  buried  with  his  body.  It  was  accordingly  taken 
down  quietly  in  the  night-time.^ 

Under  this  heavy  trial  the  marchioness  was  very  generally  and 
sincerely  sympathized  with  throughout  the  country  ;||  and  her  case 
was  well  calculated  to  excite  sympathy.  What  must  she  have 
suffered  in  her  mind  from  the  time  that  the  marquis  was  thrown 
into  the  Tower  of  London,  to  the  time  when  he  was  beheaded 
as  a traitor,  at  the  cross  of  Edinburgh  ? Can  it  be  doubted  that 
she  was  made  to  taste,  drop  by  drop,  more  than  the  bitterness  of 
death,  in  the  protracted  agony  which  these  proceedings  indicted 
on  her  soul  ? The  tragic  scene  of  his  execution  could  not  fail 
often  to  present  itself  to  her  imagination,  piercing  the  heart  with 
the  bitterest  anguish ; and  when  she  turned  from  that  scene  to 
reflect  on  her  own  condition,  she  must  have  found  herself  “ a 
widow  indeed.”  But  severe  though  the  trial  was,  she  rebelled 
not  against  the  Supreme  Disposer  of  events,  but  acquiesced  in 
his  determinations,  from  a persuasion  that  though  these,  in  some 

Sir  George  M‘Keiizie’s  Memoirs  of  the  Affairs  of  Scotland,  p.  47.  Aikman’s 
History  of  Scotland,  vol.  iv.,  p.  187. 

t Kirkton’s  History,  p.  156.  | Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  169. 

II  “ All  did  compassionate  his  religious  lady  and  children.” — Row’s  Life  of  Rob- 
ert Blair,  p.  385. 


MARCHIONESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


99 


respects,  miglit  be  mysterious  and  incomprehensible  to  her,  they 
were  yet  the  determinations  of  her  heavenly  Father,  Avho  doeth 
all  things  well.  The  exemplary  resignation  she  displayed,  and 
which  everybody  admired,  is  fully  attested  by  contemporary  wri- 
ters. Law,  for  example,  in  his  Memorials,  when  recording  the 
death  of  the  marquis,  says  : “ His  lady,  Margaret  Douglas,  a 
lady  of  singular  piety  and  virtue,  bore  this  sad  stroke  with  other 
both  personal  and  domestic  afflictions,  with  great  patience,  and 
incredible  fortitude,  giving  herself  always  to  prayer  and  fasting, 
and  ministering  to  the  necessity  of  the  saints.”*  Various  cir- 
cumstances connected  with  the  death  of  the  marquis  would,  no 
doubt,  contribute  to  produce  this  desirable  state  of  mind.  It  was 
comforting  to  her  to  reflect  that  no  evil  deed  of  his  had  merited 
such  cruel  treatment ; that  he  died,  not  as  a traitor  to  his  country 
or  his  king,  but  in  reality  as  a martyr  in  the  cause  of  Christ.  It 
was  comforting  to  her  also  to  know  that  he  met  death  with  a 
heroism  which  has  never  been  surpassed  in  the  annals  of  mar- 
tyrdom ; a heroism  not  inspired  by  a passion  for  earthly  renown, 
like  that  of  the  patriots  of  Sparta,  Rome,  and  Athens,  but  by  the 
peace  of  God  which  dwelt  in  his  soul,  and  the  hope  of  eternal 
glory,  with  which  he  was  animated.!  Her  pious  friends,  both 
ministers  and  others,  would  also  contribute  much,  by  presenting 
to  her  mind  the  various  sources  of  consolation  opened  up  in  the 
gospel,  to  allay  the  bitterness  of  her  grief,  and  to  produce  sub- 
mission to  the  Divine  will.  Among  those  who  were  thus  useful 
to  her,  we  must  not  omit  to  mention  Mr.  John  Carstairs,  a man 
of  strong  sympathies,  to  whom  it  was  always  a pleasing  duty  to 
condole  with,  and  comfort  the  suffering,  the  sorrowful,  and  the 
bereaved.  Writing  to  her  in  reference  to  this  dispensation,  he 
says,  “ He  [God]  hath  given  the  highest  security  ‘ that  all  things’ 
(having  a special  look  at  all  their  afflictions,  as  the  context,  in 
the  confession  of  most,  if  not  all,  judicious  commentators  putteth 
beyond  debate)  ‘ shall  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love 
God,  and  are  the  called  according  to  his  purpose  where  he  hath, 
to  speak  so  with  reverence  to  his  majesty,  condescended  some 
way  to  abridge  his  own  sovereignty  and  absolute  dominion,  en- 

* Law's  Memorials,  p.  10. 

t Sir  George  M'Kenzie,  one  of  his  counsel,  having  told  him,  a little  before  his 
death,  that  it  was  believed  he  was  a coward,  and  would  die  timorously,  he  replied 
that  he  would  not  die  as  a Roman  braving  death,  but  that  he  would  die  as  a Chris- 
tian, without  being  affrighted.  In  proof  of  his  mental  tranquillity  on  the  scaffold,  it 
may  be  stated  that  he  addressed  the  spectators  without  the  least  apparent  agita- 
tion, using  his  ordinary  gestures ; and  that  his  physician,  who  touched  his  pulse, 
found  it  beating  at  the  usual  rate,  calm  and  strong. — Sir  George  M‘Kenzie’s  Mem- 
oirs of  the  Affairs  of  Scotland,  p.  47.  Burnet's  Own  Times,  vol.  i.,  p.  179. 


100 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


gaging  himself  by  covenant,  that  though  he  may  do  what  he  will, 
yet  he  shall  will  to  do  nothing  but  what  shall  be  for  his  people’s 
good ; so  that  in  all  his  dispensations  toward  them,  his  absolute 
dominion  and  his  good  will  shall  be  commensurable  and  of  equal 
extent,  the  one  of  them  never  to  be  stretched  one  hair’s  breadth 
beyond  the  other.  And  even  in  the  most  dark,  involved,  intri- 
cate, abstruse,  and  mysterious  providences  wherein  they  can  read 
and  take  up  least  of  his  mind,  and  wherein  he  (seeming  to  walk 
either  in  the  greatest  absoluteness  of  his  dominion,  or  in  the  sharp- 
est severity  of  his  justice)  refuseth  to  give  a particular  account 
of  his  matters  and  motions,  he  hath  wonderfully  stooped  and  con- 
descended to  give  this  general,  sweetly  satisfactory  account,  that 
they  shall  work  for  good,  even  their  spiritual  good  and  profit,  to 
the  purging  of  sin,  and  their  further  participation  of  his  holiness.”* 
The  same  writer  further  says  to  her,  “ What  possible  loss  or 
want  is  it  that  can  not  be  made  up  in  Him,  who  is  God  all-suffi- 
cient, and  in  whom,  whatever  is  desirable  and  excellent  among 
the  creatures,  is  to  be  found  in  an  eminently  transcendant  and 
infinitely  more  excellent  way ; and  from  whom,  as  the  inexhaust- 
ibly full  fountain,  and  incomprehensibly  vast,  immense,  storeless, 
boundless,  and  bottomless  ocean  of  all  delightful,  desirable,  im- 
aginable, and  possible  perfections,  the  small  drops,  and  little  riv- 
ulets of  seeming  and  painted  perfections,  scattered  among  the 
creatures,  issue  forth. ”t 

Not  much  longer  than  a year  after  the  execution  of  the  mar- 
quis, she  met  with  another  trial  in  her  eldest  son.  Lord  Lorn, 
who,  like  his  father,  was  tried  before  the  Scottish  parliament, 
and  condemned  to  be  beheaded,  but  the  sentence  was  not  exe- 
cuted.:|: 

* Carstair’s  Dedication  of  Mr.  James  Durham’s  Posthumous  Treatise  on  the  Ten 
Commandments  “ to  the  right  honorable,  truly  noble,  and  renownedly  religious  lady, 
my  lady  marchioness  of  Argyll.”  In  this  dedication,  Carstairs  also  says,  “ Madam, 
being  fully  persuaded  that  this  savory,  sound,  solid,  soul-searching,  and  soul-settling 
treatise  will  be  acceptable  to  and  improved  by  your  ladyship,  for  furtherance  of  this 
your  spiritual  good  and  advantage,  beyond  what  it  will  be  to  and  by  most  others,  I 
find  no  need  of  any  long  consultation  with  myself  to  whom  to  address  its  dedica- 
tion, you  having,  in  my  poor  esteem,  on  many  accounts,  the  deserved  preference  of 
many  (to  say  no  more)  ladies  of  honor  now  living ; and  since,  withal,  I nothing 
doubt,  had  the  precious  and  now  perfected  author  been  alive,  and  minded  the  pub- 
lication of  it  with  a dedication  to  any  noble  lady,  yourself  would  have  been  the  per- 
son ; of  whom,  I know,  he  had'a  high  esteem,  having  himself,  before  his  death,  sig- 
nilied  his  purpose  of  dedicating  his  piece  on  the  Canticles  to  your  ladyship’s  noble, 
and  much  noted  sister-in-law,  my  lady  viscountess  of  Kenmure.  It  needs  no  epis- 
tles of  commendation  to  you,  who  was  so  thoroughly  acquainted  with  its  author ; 
the  readingof  it  will  abundantly  commend  itself,  and  as  a piece,  though  posthumous, 
of  his  work,  commend  him  in  the  gates.” 

t Carstair’s  Dedication  of  Mr.  James  Durham’s  Posthumous  Treatise  on  the  Ten 
Commandments.  t See  Appendix,  No.  III. 


MARCHIONESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


101 


It  may  be  proper  here  to  say  something  concerning  the  worldly 
circumstances  of  the  marchioness  on  her  becoming  a widow.  A 
little  before  going  out  to  the  place  of  execution,  the  marquis  wrote 
and  subscribed  a letter  to  the  king,  in  which  he  casts  the  deso- 
late condition  of  his  poor  wife  and  family  upon  his  majesty’s 
royal  favor ; “ for,”  says  he,  “ whatever  may  be  your  majesty’s 
displeasure  against  myself,  these,  I hope,  have  not  done  anything 
to  procure  your  majesty’s  indignation.  And  since  that  family  have 
had  the  honor  to  be  faithful  subjects  and  serviceable  to  your  royal 
progenitors,  I humbly  beg  my  faults  may  not  extinguish  the  last- 
ing merit  and  memory  of  those  who  have  given  so  many  signal 
proofs  of  constant  loyalty  for  many  generations.  Orphans  and 
widows,  by  special  prerogative  and  command  from  God,  are  put 
under  your  protection  and  defence,  that  you  suffer  them  not  to  be 
wronged,”*  But  notwithstanding  this  letter,  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  had  it  been  left  entirely  to  Charles  himself,  who 
cared  nothing  about  orphans  and  widows,  the  marchioness  and 
her  fatherless  children  would  have  remained  in  poverty,  and  de- 
pendent upon  the  bounty  of  others  ; while  Middleton  would  have 
been  revelling  on  the  rental  of  their  estates.  Lauderdale,  how- 
ever, whose  lady’s  niece,  as  has  been  observed  before,!  was  the  wife 
of  Lord  Lorn,  the  eldest  son  of  Argyll,  succeeded  in  obtaining 
for  the  noble  widow  and  her  family  their  rightful  property.  A 
writer  on  that  period,  speaking  of  the  condemnation,  forfeiture, 
and  execution,  of  the  marquis,  says  : “Nor  could  all  the 
great  power  and  interest  which  the  duke  of  Lauderdale  had  at 
court  ward  off  this  terrible  blow,  though  he  procured  a gift  of  the 
forfeiture  from  his  majesty  to  the  earl  of  Argyll  and  his  creditors, 
to  be  applied  in  the  following  manner:  1.  Fifteen  thousand 
pounds  of  ftee  yearly  rent  was  granted  to  the  earl  himself.  2. 
Allowance  was  made  for  payment  of  mortgages  or  proper  v/ad- 
setts.  3.  For  such  debts  as  were  owing  by  the  earl  himself,  or 
for  which  he  was  bound  jointly  with  his  father.  4.  For  my  lady 
marchioness’s  provision  by  her  marriage  settlement,  and  for  the 
portions  of  the  younger  children  of  the  family ; and  the  remain- 
der of  the  estate  w^s  appointed  to  be  equally  divided  among  the 
late  marquis’s  children.”! 

The  marchioness  of  Argyll  was  thus  placed  in  such  circum- 
stances as  rendered  her  independent,  and  put  it  in  her  power  to 
exercise  liberality  to  others  to  a considerable  extent. 

* Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  i.,  p.  154.  t See  p.  79. 

t Memoirs  of  Sir  Ewen  Cameron  of  Locheill,  by  Mr.  John  Drummond,  pp.  167 
170,  195. 

9* 


102 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT, 


She  survived  the  marquis  nearly  seventeen  years,  preserving 
during  that  period  both  the  form  and  spirit  of  widowhood.  Ta- 
king up  her  residence  at  Roseneath,  and  living  for  the  most  part 
in  retirement,  she  spent  the  remainder  of  her  days  in  devotion 
and  good  works,  conducting  her  family  on  the  strictest  princi- 
ples of  religion,  attending  the  public  and  private  means  of  grace 
with  great  regularity,  ministering  to  the  necessities  of  the  dis- 
eased, the  poor,  and  the  persecuted,  with  affectionate  liberality, 
bearing  all  the  afflictions  which  befell  her  with  exemplary  pa- 
tience, and  giving  evidence  by  her  whole  deportment  that  she 
was  under  the  influence  of  pure  and  undefiled  religion. 

We  are  furnished  with  an  account  of  the  manner  in  which  her 
widowhood  was  spent,  by  Mr.  Neil  Gillies,  indulged  minister  of 
the  parish  in  which  she  resided,*  in  a letter  to  a friend  after  her 
death.  The  chief  design  of  the  letter  is  to  give  some  account  of 
the  circumstances  connected  with  her  last  illness  ; but  it  is  pre- 
ceded by  the  statement  of  a few  facts  relating  to  her  life.  After 
observing  that  his  purpose  was  not  to  give  any  large  account  of 
the  Lord’s  dealing  with  this  lady,  whom  he  designates  the  “ truly 
noble  and  worthy,  now  glorified  lady  marchioness  of  Argyll,”  in 

* Mr.  Neil  Gillies  had  become  indulged  minister  of  Roseneath  previous  to  the  year 
1679.  He  was  afterward  removed  to  Cardross,  upon  a petition  of  the  heritors  and 
inhabitants  of  that  parish  to  the  privy  council. — (Wod row's  History,  vol.  hi.,  pp.  24, 
156.)  He  continued  in  Cardross  till  1690,  when  he  was  translated  to  the  inner  high 
church  of  Glasgow.  In  their  reasons  for  his  translation,  the  people  of  Glasgow  urge 
his  peculiar  fitness  on  these  grounds  : “ 1.  The  acceptableness  of  his  ministerial  gifts 
to  the  people  here,  who  have  often  heard  him.  2.  His  converse  since  he  left  the 
college,  these  thirty  years  past,  has  been  not  only  with  the  best  but  also  the  great- 
est, and  those  in  most  public  employments,  in  both  this  kingdom  and  England,  and 
so  he  must  be  more  fit  for  such  a public  place  as  this.  3.  His  prudence,  patience, 
meekness,  and  healing  temper,  which  the  animosities  and  difficulties  of  this  place 
call  so  loud  for."  They  add,  that  “ upon  the  foresaid  accounts,  the  late  faithful,  now 
glorified  Mr.  Rogers,  who  knew  both  him  and  this  place  so  well,  did  move  vigor- 
ously for  him,  while  he  lived  ; and  on  his  death-bed,  and  very  near  his  end,  being 
consulted  by  the  eldership  about  his  successor,  did  seriously  recommend  him  as  the 
fittest  he  could  think  upon." — (Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxviii.,  4to,  No.  32.)  Mr.  Gil- 
lies died  in  1701.  He  was  a very  serious  and  impressive  preacher,  as  may  be  gath- 
ered from  the  two  following  anecdotes  which  Wodrow  has  preserved : “ One  time 
Mrs.  Luke  heard  him  either  preaching  on  these  words,  ‘ Good  will  to  men,'  or  he 
cited  them,  and  enlarged  on  them  in  a holy  rapture;  and  was  running  out  upon  the 
infinite  love  and  condescension  in  good  will  to  men,  and  repeated  it  once  or  twice — 
‘ Good  will  to  men,  and  good  will  to  me  ! O how  sweet  is  this  !’  A woman  long 
under  distress,  but  serious,  cried  out.  ‘ And  to  me  also  !' — and  this  was  the  beginning 
of  her  gracious  outgate"  (her  deliverance  from  despondency). — Wodrow’s  Analecta, 
vol.  iv.,  p.  45.  At  another  time,  “ when  he  heard,  betwixt  sermons  on  a sabbath 
day,  that  Mr.  Robert  Langlands,  about  a year  previous  transported  from  the  barony 
to  Elgin  of  Moray,  was  dead  ; after  singing,  when  he  began  prayer,  he  said  to  this 
purpose  : ‘ Lord,  what  wilt  thou  do  with  us  ? It  seems  dhou  art  resolved  to  flit 
from  among  us,  when  thou  art  packing  up  some  of  thy  best  plenishing  !'  And  tlie 

tears  dropped  down  from  his  cheeks  on  Mr.  Simon  Kelly,  minister  at , then 

precentor,  who  relates  this.  It  was  in  1697  or  1698." — Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  ii. 
p.  '336. 


MARCHIONESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


103 


lier  last  sickness,  but  only  some  brief  hints,  the  writer  goes  on  to 
say  : “ Neither  shall  I stay  to  tell  you  before  this  what  is  so  well 
known  to  all  who  knew  or  heard  tell  of  her,  how  much  the  Lord 
had  enabled  her  to  bear  many  a heavy  cross,  through  a long  tract  of 
time  during  her  widowhood,  besides  what  had  passed  the  rest  of 
her  life,  which  seldom  wanted  some  remarkable  cross.  Of  her 
it  might  well  be  said  that  she  had  endured  a sore,  a tedious,  and 
constant  fight  of  afflictions  (old  ones  continued  and  new  ones  fre- 
quently superadded),  yet  was  she  enabled  to  bear  through  with 
that  faith,  patience,  submission,  and  Christian  magnanimity,  that 
were  very  visible,  commendable,  and  exemplary,  and  (which  I 
can  not  forget,  being  a thing  that  I often  admired)  such  diligence 
and  assiduity  in  following  the  duties  of  praying,  reading,  hearing, 
praise,  all  the  acts  of  worship,  a constant  waiting  upon  all  ordi- 
nances and  duties,  public  and  private,  and  even  upon  the  weekly 
catechizing,  at  which  she  delighted  to  be  present,  and  by  which 
she  confessed  that  she  had  ever  profited  much : all  these  she  so 
attended  that  it  was  a rare  thing  to  find  her  in  an  omission  as  to 
any  of  them.  And  as  if  a child  under  the  inspection  of  a teacher, 
or  one  put  to  task  (and  indeed  she  did  task  herself),  so  did  she 
follow  and  keep  close  to  these  duties,  being  conscious  that  she 
had  One  who  stood  over  her  head  always,  that  was  witness  to 
all  her  ways,  to  whom  she  must  ere  long  give  an  account  of 
herself. 

“ The  rest  of  her  time  she  did  spend  in  overseeing  her  chil- 
dren or  grandchildren  (of  which  there  were  still  a number  about 
her),  and  Christian  entertainment  of  such  as  came  to  visit  her, 
with  such  exemplary  gravity  and  sobriety,  and  other  good  enter- 
tainment, as  was  much  observed  and  commended  ; and  moreover, 
her  cheerfully  welcoming  and  helping  such  as  came  for  help  or 
advice  for  their  bodily  diseases.  For  this  she  was  so  famous, 
that  they  came  frequently  and  in  great  numbers.  Of  such  she 
never  wearied,  nor  was  dissatisfied  with  their  coming,  except  in 
so  far  as  they  did  disappoint  themselves  (as  she  in  her  humility 
deniedly  expressed  it)  by  putting  such  confidence  in  her  skill, 
which  she  said  was  no  skill ; yet  the  experience  that  so  many 
had,  of  the  Lord’s  blessing,  with  good  success,  the  advices  and 
helps  she  gave  brought  so  many  to  her,  who  seldom  missed  of 
the  intent  of  their  coming,  and  divers  of  them  would  have  within 
some  time  returned  to  show  what  the  Lord  had  done  to  them  by 
her  means,  and  to  give  her  thanks,  for  which  she  was  very  thank- 
ful to  Him  who  had  so  blessed  what  she  did.  And  that  she  might 
be  the  more  useful  this  way,  she  had  always  good  store  of  medi- 


104 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


caments  beside  her — many  of  them  brought  from  the  apotheca- 
ries, but  most  of  them  she  caused  make  herself,  never  adventur- 
ing to  give  anything  but  what  she  knew  was  safe,  and  could  do 
no  hurt. 

“ Neither  was  she  behind  any  in  the  generation  for  charity  to 
the  poor  distressed,  especially  to  such  as  were  of  the  household 
of  faith.  Great  numbers  of  poor  people  did  flock  to  her ; nor 
could  the  coldest  weather  and  most  dangerous  storms  hinder  them 
to  come  to  her  from  afar,  although  they  knew  they  were  to  pass 
over  ferries  (the  place  of  her  residence  being  surrounded  with 
waters),  and  it  was  the  observation  of  neighbors  about  that  her 
being  there  brought  multitudes  on  them  ; but  to  these  she  was  so 
liberal,  as  I need  only  say  that  I am  persuaded  she  gave  with  as 
much  Christian  compassion  as  any,  ‘ drawing  out  the  soul  to  the 
hungry,’*  &c.,  and  that  the  receivers  themselves  were  ofttimes 
astonished  when  they  got  so  largely,  as  that  in  many  miles  they 
got  not  so  much  from  all  as  from  her  alone,  and  it  was  the  admi- 
ration of  many  how  this  could  hold  out  with  her  ; but  God  blessed 
all.  And  when  sometimes  it  was  told  her  that  many  of  those 
she  gave  to  were  but  cheats  and  rogues  (as  indeed  many  of  them 
were),  she  would  freely  answer : ‘ While  we  have  opportunity, 
let  us  do  good  to  all  men,  but  especially  to  the  household  of  faith,’ 
and  that  she  gave  what  she  gave  to  them,  not  as  to  cheats,  but  as 
to  needy  persons  ; and  that  if  she  gave  with  a single  eye  she 
would  be  accepted,  whatever  they  were,  and  whateA^er  use  they 
made  of  what  she  gave  ;t  yet  did  she  little  regard  profane,  randy 
beggars,  though  even  these  still  got  something  by  her  order  ; and 
when  she  met  with  any  whom  she  had  ground  to  believe  were 
of  the  household  of  faith,  to  these  she  was  most  liberal,  and  gave 
them  with  such  compassion  and  kindness  as  did  show  what  a 
living  member  of  Christ’s  body  she  was. 

“ While  she  was  daily  exercised  for  most  part  as  I have  now 
hinted,  she  did  not  trouble  herself  with  household  aflairs  (except 
in  causing  provide  things  necessary  for  housekeeping),  having 

* Isaiah  Iviii.  10. 

t It  is  obvious  that  this  does  not  mean  that  she  intended  by  her  liberality  to  en- 
courage the  idle,  who,  if  willing,  might  have  supported  themselves,  or  to  furnish  the 
vicious  with  the  means  of  dissipation  ; but  simply,  that  when  she  saw  men  in  mis- 
ery, she  felt  herself  bound  to  relieve  them,  although  she  could  not  in  every  case  pre- 
vent them  from  making  a bad  use  of  what  she  gave.  Liberality  ought,  no  doubt,  to 
be  exercised  with  discretion  as  well  as  with  kindness — an  important  principle  to  be 
observed  in  this  department  of  well-doing  : for  to  give  without  reflection,  or  capri- 
ciously, may  do  more  harm  than  good — may  make  the  idle  still  more  indolent,  and 
the  vicious  still  more  depraved,  and  may  thus  increase  ijvretchedness  in  the  attempt 
to  relieve  it.  But  still,  even  the  profligate  and  abandoned,  when  in  misery,  must 
not  be  left  to  perish. 


MARCHIONESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


105 


laid  over  these  matters  entirely  on  some  whom  she  trusted,  of 
whose  skill  and  fidelity  she  had  long  experience  ; and  her  being 
exonered  of  this  care  and  burden  she  often  acknowledged  as  a 
great  ease  to  her,  and  a great  help  to  her,  being  taken  up  with 
things  of  another  nature,  which  was  her  main  work  and  de- 
light.”* 

Such  is  the  description  given  of  the  ornamental  character  of 
this  lady,  by  a contemporary  who  knew  her  well.  Baptized  into 
the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  went  about  doing  good,  she  was 
not  only  attentive  to  the  duties  of  personal  piety,  but  unwearied 
in  the  performance  of  the  great  duties  of  charity  and  benevolence. 
“ When  the  ear  heard  her,  then  it  blessed  her ; and  when  the 
eye  saw  her,  it  gave  witness  to  her ; because  she  delivered  the 
poor  that  cried,  and  the  fatherless,  and  him  that  had  none  to  help 
him.  The  blessing  of  him  that  was  ready  to  perish  came  upon 
her ; and  she  caused  the  widow’s  heart  to  sing  for  joy.”  Imita- 
ting Him  who  ‘‘  maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  on  the 
good,  and  sendeth  rain, on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust,”  she  made 
it  her  business  to  minister  to  the  welfare  of  even  the  undeserv- 
ing. Such  was  the  temper  and  conduct  inspired  by  the  religion 
which  she  professed,  and  such  was  the  spirit  of  the  religion 
which  Charles  and  his  government  misrepresented  as  fanaticism, 
sedition,  rebellion,  and  labored,  by  the  violence  of  persecution, 
to  crush  and  extinguish. 

It  thus  appeared  how  eminently  instrumental  all  the  afflictive 
events  which  had  befallen  this  noble  widow  had  been  in  promo- 
ting her  spiritual  improvement.  Accompanied  by  the  Divine 
blessing,  they  were  in  her  case  productive  of  those  happy  fruits, 
which,  left  to  themselves,  they  will  never  naturally  produce. 
Another  minister,  Mr.  John  Carstairs,  who  was  also  personally 
acquainted  with  her,  addressing  her  only  four  years  previous  to 
her  death,  bears  testimony  in  like  manner  to  the  distinguished 
progress  she  had  made  in  Christian  excellence,  through  the  in- 
fluence of  adverse  dispensations.  In  the  document  from  which 
we  have  before  quoted, f after  observing  that  the  King  of  Saints 

has  imposed  upon  every  cross  that  his  people  meet  with,  not 
excepting  (to  say  so)  vessels  of  the  greatest  burden  of  affliction 
that  sail  up  and  down  the  sands,  as  it  were,  of  the  troublesome 
sea  of  this  world,  the  toll  and  custom  of  some  spiritual  good  to 

* W odrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxvii.,  4to,  No.  27.  This  document  is  in  the  handwriting  of 
Mr.  Gillies,  as  appears  from  comparing  it  with  another  paper,  which  Wodrow 
marks  as  in  the  handwriting  of  that  minister. 

t Carstairs’  Epistle  Dedicatory  prefixed  to  Durham’s  Posthumous  Exposition  of 
the  Ten  Commandments. 


106 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


be  paid  to  them,”  and  after  giving  expression  to  a wish  ‘‘  that  all 
the  graciously  sincere  lovers  of  God,  and  the  effectually  called 
according  to  his  purpose,  might  be  persuaded  and  prevailed  with, 
to  set  themselves  down  at  the  receipt  of  these  customs  from  the  many 
crosses  and  afflictions  that  come  in  their  way,  with  a fixed  reso- 
lution to  suffer  none  of  them  to  pass  without  paying  the  custom 
imposed  by  the  King,”  Carstairs  goes  on  to  say  : “ It  is  now,  no- 
ble madam,  a long  time,  not  far  from  toward  thirty  years  (what- 
ever was  before),  since  your  ladyship  was  known  by  some  to  be 
helped,  through  grace,  seriously  to  sit  down  at  the  receipt  of 
these  customs  from  the  cross  and  afflicting  dispensations  which 
then  occurred  to  you,  whereby  ye  did  observably  improve,  better 
and  increase  your  spiritual  stock  and  state,  some  way  to  the  ad- 
miration of  standers-by  ; and  since  that  time,  for  most  part  of  it, 
you  have  been,  in  the  holy  providence  of  God,  tried  with  a tract 
of  tribulations,  each  of  them  more  trying  than  another,  and  some 
of  them  that,  I think  (as  once  the  blest  author  of  this  treatise,  on 
occasion  of  a sad  and  surprising  stroke,  the  removal  of  the  desire 
of  his  eyes,  his  gracious  and  faithful  wife,  after  a whiles  silence, 
with  much  gravity  and  great  composure  of  spirit,  said,  ‘ Who 
could  persuade  me  to  believe  that  this  is  good  if  God  had  not 
said  it  r)  if  all  the  world  had  said  and  sworn  it,  they  could  very 
hardly,  if  at  all,  have  persuaded  you  to  believe  that  they  were 
good.  But  since  God,  that  can  not  lie,  hath  said  it,  there  is  no 
room  left  to  debate  or  doubt  of  it : let  be  to  deny  it.  And  if  your 
ladyship  (as  I hope  you  have)  hath  been  all  this  while  gathering 
up  the  customs  of  spiritual  good  and  gain  upon  these  many,  va- 
rious, and  great  tribulations,  wherewith  the  Lord,  no  doubt  in  a 
blessed  design  of  singular  good  to  you,  hath  thought  fit  to  exer- 
cise you  beyond  most  persons  living,  at  least  of  your  noble  sta- 
tion and  extraction,  oh,  what  a vast  stock  and  treasure  of  rich 
and  soul-enriching  precious  experiences  of  the  good  and  profit 
of  all  these  afflictions  and  tribulations,  must  you  needs  have  lying 
by  you  !”  He  further  says  : “ I could,  from  my  own  particular, 
certain  knowledge  and  observation,  long  ago  and  of  late  (having 
had  the  honor  and  happiness  to  be  often  in  your  company,  and  at 
some  of  the  lowest  ebbs  of  your  outward  prosperity),  and  from 
the  knowledge  of  others  more  knowing  and  observing  than  I,  say 
more  of  your  rich  incomes  of  gain  and  advantage,  of  your  im- 
provements, of  the  countervailings  of  your  damage,  and  of  the 
upmakings  of  all  your  losses  this  way,  than  either  my  fear  of 
incurring  the  construction  of  a flatterer  with  such  as  do  not  know 
you  as  I do,  will  permit ; or  your  Christian  modesty,  sobriety, 


MARCHIONESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


107 


and  self-denial,  will  admit.  And  to  undertake  to  say  all  that 
might  truly,  and  without  complimenting,  be  said  to  this  purpose, 
would  be  thought  by  your  ladyship  as  far  below  you  to  crave  or 
expect,  as  it  would  be  above  me  suitably  to  perform.” 

In  private  intercourse,  the  conversation  of  the  marchioness 
was  both  edifying  and  interesting.  Her  acquaintance  with  the 
Sacred  Writings,  and  with  the  subordinate  standards  of  the 
church  of  Scotland,  enabled  her  to  speak  intelligently  on  ques- 
tions of  theology,  and  she  was  able  to  give  a pleasing  account 
of  events  which  had  befallen  her  family,  as  well  as  of  those  which 
had  befallen  the  church  and  nation,  during  the  stirring  period  in 
which  she  had  lived.  ‘‘  I must  not,”  says  Mr.  Gillies,  “ forget 
to  tell  that  her  acquaintance  with  the  Scriptures,  and  with  our 
Confession  of  Faith  (the  book  which,  next  to  the  Bible,  she  was 
most  versed  in),  did  sufficiently  witness  how  well  she  was  stored 
with  the  knowledge  of  Divine  mysteries  ; and  although  she  was 
no  great  reader  of  polemic  divinity,  yet  when  any  head  of  con- 
troversy fell  to  be  spoken  of  in  her  presence,  she  would,  upon 
the  sudden,  from  the  Bible  and  Confession,  adduce  such  allega- 
tions and  testimonies  as  were  apposite  to  the  things  then  spoken 
of,  so  that  the  most  judicious  that  were  about  her  were  often  and 
much  edified  by  her.  She  was  also  well  able*  to  give  a good  ac- 
count of  things  that  had  passed  during  the  late  troubles,  and  many 
remarkable  passages  of  Providence  that  fell  out  in  these  times, 
toward  the  church  and  kingdom,  and  toward  her  own  family,  to 
the  great  satisfaction  of  those  that  conversed  with  her.”  It  is  to 
be  regretted  that  neither  she  herself,  nor  Mr.  Gillies,  has  chron- 
icled these  “ remarkable  passages.” 

The  marchioness  lived  to  a considerably  advanced  age.  In 
her  last  illness  she  exhibited  the  same  pious  spirit  with  which 
she  was  animated  during  her  past  life,  and  her  latter  end  was 
peace.  Only  a few  facts,  however,  relating  to  her  death-bed 
scene,  and  the  protracted  sickness  preceding  it,  have  been  pre- 
served, and  these  we  shall  give  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Gillies,  by 
whom  they  have  been  recorded.  “ Her  disease,”  says  he,  “ of 
which  she  died,  commenced  in  April,  1677,  and  continued  du- 
ring the  period  of  eleven  months,  till  her  departure.  Yet  from 
April  till  November  she  kept  her  feet,  always  waiting  on  duties 
in  public  and  private,  as  she  was  wont  to  do,  bearing  the  burden 
of  her  disease  so  patiently  that  none  but  those  that  were  nearest 
her  and  most  intimate  with  her  could  almost  know  that  anything 
ailed  her.  She,  however,  had  death  still  in  view,  and  her  strength 
was  still  diminishing  gradually  till  November,  at  which  time 


108 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


there  was  the  accession  of  a great  cold  to  her  former  disease, 
which  forced  her  to  take  bed,  November  11th.  After  some  days 
she  got  up  again,  having  recovered  from  the  effects  of  that  cold ; 
but  her  old  disease  still  continued  and  increased,  so  that  from 
that  time  forth  she  never  went  out  of  her  chamber  to  the  gallery, 
where  she  used  to  appear  in  public.  She  therefore  appointed  the 
daily  worship  to  be  performed  in  her  chamber,  where  also  was 
performed  the  sabbath-day’s  work  and  week-day’s  sermon,  admit- 
ting there  all  that  pleased  to  come,  as  she  had  done  in  the  gal- 
lery, never  shutting  her  gates  or  doors  upon  any  all  these  times, 
whatever  might  be  the  hazard.  During  this  time  she  contracted 
a great  cold  in  the  left  side  of  her  head,  which  was  caused  by  the 
leaving  a window  open  to  help  the  chimney  that  does  not  vent 
well  when  the  wind  is  at  east.  This  cold  brought  that  side  of  her 
head  to  such  a distemper  as  never  left  her,  and  did  not  a little 
molest  her,  while  her  main  sickness  did  still  increase,  yet  with- 
out impairing  her  judgment,  memory,  or  sense  (which  were  fresh 
and  entire  almost  unto  the  last),  and  without  pain  or  heart  sick- 
ness, which  was  a great  wonder  to  herself,  and  oft  acknowledged 
as  God’s  great  mercy  to  her  in  his  loosing  the  pins  of  her  taber- 
nacle so  gently,  that  she  was  yet  able  to  attend  and  go  about  any 
ordinary  duty ; fox'  all  this  while  she  waited  on  every  duty,  most 
part  sitting  up  (and  but  seldom  lying)  on  her  couch  in  the  cham- 
ber, going  to  bed  and  rising  almost  at  the  ordinary  times  as  when 
in  health,  continuing  to  join  in  all  acts  of  worship,  and  holding 
out,  in  the  sabbath-day’s  work,  without  wearying,  to  the  admira- 
tion of  all  who  saw  her  weakness,  and  to  her  own  admiration. 

And  although  a heavy  disease,” * 

Here  Mr.  Gillies’s  account  of  her  last  sickness  and  death  ab- 
ruptly stops.  We,  however,  gather  a few  facts  respecting  the 
subsequent  stages  of  her  trouble,  from  a long  poetical  tribute  to 
her  memory,  of  his  composition,  embodying  the  particulars  con- 
tained in  his  prose  account  of  her,  the  most  of  which  we  have 
extracted,  and  carrying  the  narrative  down  to  the  moment  in 
which  she  expired.  From  this  poem  we  learn,  that  after  this  she 
was  afflicted  with  severe  and  tedious  bodily  distress,  which  she 
bore  with  a patience  and  meekness  that  beautifully  harmonized 
with  the  bright  exemplifications  she  had  given  of  these  graces 
under  the  multiplied  afflictions  of  her  life.  We  also  learn  from 
it,  that  after  this  she  suffered  severe  mental  distress.  Satan  has 
often  been  permitted  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  most  eminent  of 
God’s  people  on  their  death-beds,  and  by  setting  their  sins,  as  it 
* Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxvii.,  4to.,  No.  27. 


MARCHIONESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


109 


were,  in  array  before  them,  he  has  tempted  them  to  yield  to  the 
despairing  imagination,  that  it  is  presumptuous  for  them  to  expect 
forgiveness  and  salvation  from  a God  of  infinite  purity  and  jus- 
tice. Such  was  the  temptation  with  which  this  pious  lady  was 
assailed  in  the  prospect  of  eternity.  But  looking  away  from  ev- 
erything about  herself,  and  trusting  to  the  righteousness  of  Christ 
as  the  only  foundation  of  her  hope  of  eternal  life,  she  was  at  last 
relieved ; and  becoming  victorious  over  temptation  and  fear,  she 
said,  “ O my  ease  is  great ; great,  great  is  my  ease.”  After  this 
she  again  endured  severe  and  protracted  inward  bodily  agony. 
These  agonies,  says  Mr.  Gillies,  can  hardly  be  “ set  forth”  but 
as  they  “ expressed  her  worth,  and  how  much  her  Savior  had 
trusted  to  the  grace  which  he  had  strongly  planted  in  her  noble 
heart.”  Bystanders  were  astonished  to  see  one  who  had  suffered 
so  much  during  life,  tried  so  severely  by  her  heavenly  Father  to 
the  last.  But  the  days  of  her  mourning  were  now  near  an  end. 
Her  strength  gradually  sunk,  and  on  the  13th  of  March,  1678, 
after  a long  experience  of  the  trials  and  vicissitudes  of  human 
life,  she  breathed  out  her  spirit  into  the  hands  of  her  God  and 
Savior,  with  the  greatest  peace  and  tranquillity,  in  the  sixty- 
eighth  year  of  her  age,  bearing  testimony  with  her  dying  breath 
to  the  goodness  of  the  Lord.*  The  Wodrow  MSS.,  besides  Mr. 
Gillies’s  poem  from  which  these  particulars  are  drawn,  contain 
another  by  a different  hand,  but  it  is  too  long  to  be  here  inserted, 
nor  has  it  any  claim  to  poetical  merit.  It  commemorates  her  as 
distinguished  by  a “ strong  heart,  a sound  judgment,  an  active 
liberal  hand,”  and  ‘‘  a mind  most  noble.”  It  celebrates  the  attrac- 
tions of  her  person,  as  well  as  her  “ parts,  virtues,  graces,”  and 
her  rare  exemplary  character  as  ‘‘  a friend,  sister,  consort,  and 
mother ;”  and  pronounces  her  “ a public  blessing,  a universal 
good.”  The  following  lines  may  be  quoted  as  a specimen : — 

“ And  let  us  never  lose  the  memory 
Of  that  rich  pattern  thou  wast  seen  to  be 
To  great  and  small,  he  who  thy  life  should  view 
Saw  clear  it  did  the  Bible  transcript  shew, 

And  who  thy  steps  will  follow  hard  behind 
The  way  to  endless  bliss  is  sure  to  find. 

“ You  must  acknowledge  here  a light, 

A shining  star  quite  carried  from  our  sight, 

Never  again  t’  adorn  our  sphere,  whose  rays, 

While  here  it  shone  with  us,  made  gladsome  days, 

Glad  were  our  hearts  ; how  many  warmed  by  thee, 

Esteemed  thy  presence  a felicity. 

But  thou  wilt  yet  once  more  return  again, 

As  one  of  the  Redeemer's  glorious  train.” f 

* Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxvii.,  folio,  No.  80. 

10 


t Ibid. 


no 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


These  notices  of  the  marchioness  of  Argyll’s  character  we  can 
not  conclude  more  appropriately  than  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Gil- 
lies, who  has  summed  it  up  in.  a sentence  or  two.  “ Her  life,” 
says  he,  “ is  well  known  to  have  been  filled  with  godliness,  righ- 
teousness, sobriety,  charity,  and  all  Christian  virtues,  with  a con- 
stant adherence  to  the  truths  and  ways  of  God,  without  any  fall 
or  stain  upon  any  part  of  her  life.  Yea,  which  is  admirable,  she 
lived  to  the  age  of  sixty-eight,  without  ever  being  slurred  through 
her  whole  life  with  any  scandal  or  crime  ; which  the  most  blame- 
less saints  are  liable  to,  and  have  been  sorely  afflicted  with ; yet 
did  none  of  the  worst  of  her  enemies  ever  adventure  to  asperse 
her  with  any  shameful  thing,  nor  did  they  ever  tax  her  with  any- 
thing but  her  principles  and  avowed  profession  and  practice,  her 
constant  open  adherence  to  which  was  her  glory.”  How  few 
the  number  over  whose  graves  such  a high  encomium  can  with 
truth  be  pronounced  ! How  few,  through  their  whole  life,  from 
youth  to  advanced  age,  have  so  conspicuously  displayed  the 
Christian  virtues,  and  kept  themselves  so  unspotted  from  the 
defilements  of  the  world,  as  that  their  greatest  enemies  could 
find  nothing  against  them  except  in  the  matter  of  their  God ! 

Besides  her  eldest  daughter,  Lady  Anne,  and  her  eldest  son, 
Archibald,  ninth  earl  of  Argyll,  formerly  noticed,  the  marchioness 
had  issue  to  the  marquis  : 1.  Lord  Neil  Campbell  of  Armaddie, 
who,  on  his  brother’s  invasion,  was  committed  prisoner  to  the 
castle  of  Edinburgh.  2.  Lady  Jean,  who  was  married  to  Rob- 
ert Kerr,  first  marquis  of  Lothian,  to  whom  she  had  ten  children. 
3.  Lady  Mary,  who  was  married,  first  at  Roseneath,  on  the  22d 
of  September,  1657,  to  George,  sixth  earl  of  Caithness,  by  whom 
she  had  no  issue  ; and  who,  after  his  death,  was  married  on  the 
7th  of  April,  1678,  to  Sir  John  Campbell,  first  earl  of  Breadal- 
bane,*  to  whom  she  had  one  son.  These  are  all  her  children 
by  the  marquis  enumerated  in  Douglas’s  Peerage  ;t  but  besides 
these,  she  had  to  him  a daughter  named  Lady  Isabella,  who 
resided  with  her  sister,  the  countess  of  Caithness,  and  who  is  some- 
times mentioned  in  the  epistolary  correspondence  of  that  lady.:j: 

* Douglas's  Peerage,  vol.  i.,  p.  298.  t Vol.  i.,  p.  100. 

t Law’s  Memorials,  note  by  the  Editor,  p.  10. 


MRS.  JAMES  GUTHRIE. 


Ill 


MRS.  JAMES  GUTHRIE,  MRS.  JAMES  DURHAM,  AND 
MRS.  JOHN  CARSTAIRS. 

We  shall  here  cluster  together  some  notices  of  three  excellent 
women,  ministers’  wives,  who  lived  during  the  persecution — 
Jane  Ramsay,  the  widow  of  Mr.  James  Guthrie,  who  suffered 
martyrdom  in  1661  ; Margaret  Mure,  the  widow  of  Mr.  James 
Durham,  one  of  the  ministers  of  the  high  church,  Glasgow  ; and 
Janet  Mure,  wife  of  Mr.  John  Carstairs,  also  minister  of  the  high 
church,  Glasgow.  Many  facts  or  incidents  of  their  lives  have 
not  indeed  been  spared  by  the  mouldering  hand  of  time  ; but  even 
the  few  which  remain  are  not  without  interest,  particularly  when 
we  consider  the  relation  in  which  these  ladies  stood  to  three  of 
the  most  eminent  men  who  adorned  the  church  of  Scotland  dur- 
ing the  seventeenth  century,  by  the  lustre  of  their  talents,  the 
fervor  of  their  piety,  and  their  unswerving  faithfulness  to  the  cause 
of  God.  These  women  were  in  every  respect  suitable  compan- 
ions for  the  eminent  men  to  whom  they  were  united.  Distin- 
guished for  enlightened  and  ardent  piety,  they  proved  main-springs 
of  encouragement  and  strength  to  them  in  the  work  of  the  Lord, 
by  their  conversation,  their  demeanor  and  counsel ; and  having 
taken  up  the  cross,  instead  of  tempting  them  to  unfaithfulness 
to  conscience,  when  trials  and  difficulties  in  doing  the  will  of 
God  arose,  they  encouraged  them  to  steadfastness  and  resolution, 
exhibiting  that  humility,  patience,  and  self-sacrifice,  which  con- 
stitute the  genuine  spirit  of  the  cross.  All  of  them  suffered  more 
or  less  in  the  cause  of  presbytery,  and  they  thanked  God  that 
“ unto  them  it  was  given  in  the  behalf  of  Christ,  not  only  to  be- 
lieve on  him,  but  also  to  suffer  for  his  sake.” 

Mrs.  James  Guthrie  was  more  severely  tried  than  the  other 
two.  She  was  the  second  lady,  whom  the  prelatic  persecution 
made  a widow,*  Mr.  Guthrie  having  been  condemned  by  the 
parliament,  to  be  hanged  at  the  cross  of  Edinburgh  as  a traitor, 
on  the  1st  of  June,  1661,  and  his  head  thereafter  to  be  struck  off 
and  affixed  on  the  Nether  Bow;  which  sentence  was  executed 
in  all  its  parts.  The  grounds  on  which  he  was  condemned, 
were  his  owning  the  “ Western  Remonstrance,”  “ The  Causes  of 
God’s  Wrath,”  &;c. ; but  Middleton,  who  had  the  chief  hand  in 
urging  on  the  proceedings,  was  actuated  by  personal  malice 

The  marchioness  of  Argyll  was  the  first. 


112 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT 


toward  Guthrie,  who,  in  1650,  had  carried,  in  the  commission  of 
the  church,  a motion  for  his  excommunication,  and  who,  by  ap- 
pointment of  the  commission,  had  publicly  pronounced  the  sen- 
tence in  his  own  church  at  Sterling.  Oh  that  occasion  Mrs. 
Guthrie  exhibited,  what  was  the  prevalent  governing  principle 
of  her  life,  that  strict  conscientiousness,  which,  laying  conse- 
quences out  of  view,  looks  only  to  the  call  of  duty.  When  on 
the  morning  of  the  sabbath,  on  which  Mr.  Guthrie  was  to  pro- 
nounce the  sentence  against  Middleton,  a messenger  from  the 
king,  or,  according  to  some,  from  a nobleman,  arrived  at  his  house, 
just  as  he  was  about  to  go  to  church,  desiring  him  to  delay  pro- 
nouncing it,  she  said  to  him,  on  observing  him  perplexed,  “ My 
heart,  what  the  Lord  gives  you  light  and  clearness  to  do,  that 
do,  without  giving  a positive  answer  to  the  messenger.”  The 
high  Christian  character  of  this  lady  is  attested  in  the  farewell 
letter  which  Mr.  Guthrie  addressed  to  her  from  his  prison,  on 
the  day  on  which  he  was  executed.  This  letter  is  interesting, 
both  as  a relict  of  a dying  martyr,  and  as  a memorial  of  the  lowly 
piety  and  supreme  devotion  to  duty,  which  characterized  the 
person  to  whom  it  is  affectionately  written.  It  also  indicates 
the  sources  of  comfort  suggested  to  her  mind,  in  her  trying  cir- 
cumstances. It  is  as  follows  : — 

“ My  Heart  : Being  within  a few  hours  to  lay  down  my  life 
for  the  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ,  I do  send  these  few  lines  as 
the  last  obedience  of  unfeigned  and  spotless  affection  which  I 
bear  unto  you,  not  only  as  one  flesh,  but  as  a member  with  me 
of  that  blessed  mystical  body  of  the  Lord ; for  I trust  you  are, 
and  that  God  who  hath  begun  his  good  work  in  you,  will  also 
perfect  it  and  bring  it  to  an  end,  and  give  you  life  and  salvation. 
Whatever  may  be  your  infirmities  and  weakness,  yet  the  grace 
of  God  shall  be  sufficient  for  you,  and  his  strength  shall  be  per- 
fected in  your  weakness.  To  me  you  have  been  a very  kind 
and  faithful  yoke-fellow,  and  not  a hinderer  but  a helper  in  the 
work  of  the  Lord.  I do  bear  you  this  testimony  as  all  the  rec- 
ompense I can  now  leave  you  with ; — In  all  the  trials  I have 
met  with  in  the  work  of  the  ministry  these  twenty  years  past, 
which  have  not  been  few,  and  that  from  aggressors  of  many 
sorts,  upon  the  right  hand  and  upon  the  left,  you  were  never  a 
tempter  of  me  to  depart  away  from  the  living  God,  and  from  the 
way  of  my  duty  to  comply  with  an  evil  course,  or  to  hearken  to 
the  counsels  of  flesh  and  blood,  for  avoiding  the  cross,  and  for 
gaining  the  profit  and  preferment  of  a present  world.  You  have 


MRS.  JAMES  GUTHRIE. 


113 


wrought  much  with  your  hands  for  furnishing  bread  to  me  and 
to  my  children,  and  was  always  willing  that  1 should  show  hos- 
pitality, especially  to  those  that  bore  the  image  of  God.  These 
things  I mention  not  to  puff  you  up,  but  to  encourage  you  under 
your  present  affliction  and  distress,  being  persuaded  that  God 
will  have  regard  unto  you  and  unto  the  children  of  my  body, 
which  I leave  unto  your  care,  that  they  may  be  bred  up  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  Lord.  Let  not  your  wants  and  weaknesses 
discourage  you  : there  is  power,  riches,  and  abundance  with  God, 
both  as  to  the  things  of  the  body  and  things  of  the  soul ; and  he 
will  supply  all  your  wants  and  carry  you  through.  It  is  like  to 
be  a most  trying  time,  but  cleave  you  to  God  and  keep  his  way, 
without  casting  away  your  confidence ; fear  not  to  be  drowned 
in  the  depths  of  the  troubles  that  may  attend  this  land ; God  will 
hide  you  under  his  shadow,  and  keep  you  in  the  hollow  of  his 
hand.  Be  sober  and  of  a meek  spirit ; strive  not  with  Providence, 
but  be  subject  to  him  who  is  the  Father  of  spirits.  Decline  not 
the  cross,  but  embrace  it  as  your  own.  Love  all  that  love  the 
Lord,  and  delight  in  their  fellowship.  Give  yourself  unto  prayer, 
and  be  diligent  in  reading  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Wait  on  the 
ordinances,  and  have  them  in  great  esteem  as  the  appointed 
means  of  God  for  your  salvation.  Join  the  exercise  of  piety  and 
repentance  together,  and  manifest  your  faith  in  the  fruits  of  sin- 
cere obedience,  and  of  a gospel  conversation.  Value  your  con- 
science above  your  skin.  Be  not  solicitous,  although  you  know 
not  wherewith  to  clothe  you  and  your  children,  or  wherewith  to 
dine  ; God’s  providences  and  promises  are  a true,  rich,  and  nev- 
er-failing portion.  Jesus  Christ  be  all  your  salvation  and  all 
your  desire!  You,  I recommend  unto  him,  and  him  unto  you. 
My  Heart ! I recommend  you  to  the  eternal  love  of  Jesus  Christ. 
I am  helped  of  God,  and  hope  I shall  be  helped  to  the  end. 
Pray  for  me  while  I am  here,  and  praise  with  me  hereafter. 
God  be  with  you  ! I am  yours,  “ James  Guthrie. 

“ Edinburgh  Tolbooth,  June  1,  1661.” 

This  letter  was  calculated  to  arm  Mrs.  Guthrie’s  mind  with 
fortitude  and  submission  under  the  cruel  and  ignominious  death 
of  her  husband.  Other  considerations  would  conspire  in  bring- 
ing into  exercise  the  same  Christian  graces.  Though  con- 
demned as  a traitor,  he  had  committed  nothing  worthy  of 
death,  but  fell  a martyr  for  keeping  the  commandment  of  God 
and  the  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  encountered  death  with 
an  unshrinking  courage,  which  ranks  with  that  of  the  most 

10^ 


114 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


heroic  of  prophets  and  apostles.  It  was  an  alleviating  circum- 
stance, too,  to  reflect  that  his  self-devotion  in  the  cause  of  Christ 
procured  for  him,  as  it  deserved,  the  affection,  honor,  and  admi- 
ration of  the  wise  and  good,  who  regarded  his  death  as  a judicial 
murder.  Nor  were  the  religious  ladies  of  that  time  wanting  in 
paying  to  him  the  tribute  of  their  respectful  and  admiring  hom- 
age.* Though  these  considerations  were  fitted  to  mitigate  her 
sorrow,  yet  the  tragedy  of  his  death,  in  all  its  appalling  circum- 
stances, would  tend  at  first  to  overpower  the  mind,  and  to  exclude 
from  it  reflection  on  such  alleviating  topics. 

Mrs.  Guthrie  and  her  children  were  left  in  poor  circumstances. 
But  God,  who  in  his  providence  exercises  a special  care  over 
the  fatherless  children  and  widows  of  his  martyred  servants, 
raised  up  for  them  kind  friends.  Among  others.  Sir  George 
Maxwell,  of  Pollock,  took  a particular  interest  in  their  temporal 
welfare.  The  following  anecdote  is  highly  honorable  to  the 
liberality  of  that  benevolent  gentleman,  and  interesting  as  illus- 
trating the  unexpected  and  remarkable  way  in  which  God  has 
sometimes  supplied  the  wants  of  the  widows  and  orphans  of  his 
departed  saints  in  their  distress.  “ I am  assured,”  says  Wodrow, 
“ by  a good  hand  that  had  it  from  Mr.  George  Lang,  who  was 
employed,  that  Sir  George  Maxwell  of  Pollock,  a little  after  Mr. 
Guthrie’s  execution,  hearing  his  relict  was  in  want,  called  for 
Mr.  George  Lang,  his  chaplain,  and  told  him  that  he  was  mighty 

* In  proof  of  this,  the  following  instance  may  be  given.  After  Guthrie  had  been 
executed,  his  headless  corpse  was  put  into  a coffin  and  carried  to  the  old  kirk  aisle, 
to  be  prepared  for  interment,  by  several  devout  ladies  of  quality  who  had  tendered 
their  friendly  services.  The  dressing  of  the  dead  is  always  solemn,  but  the  per- 
formance of  this  duty  to  the  mortal  remains  of  an  honored  martyr  who  has  sealed 
the  truths  of  God  with  his  blood,  is  associated  with  feelings  of  profound  veneration. 
It  was  so  on  the  present  occasion — some  of  the  ladies  who  were  so  engaged,  dipped 
their  napkins  in  the  blood  that  flowed  from  Guthrie’s  mangled  body.  Sir  Archibald 
Primrose,  lord  register,  observing  what  they  did,  asked  them  their  reason  for  so 
doing,  and  charged  them  with  imitating  the  superstition  of  the  papists,  who  collect 
and  worship  the  relicts  of  saints.  No,”  said  one  of  them,  “ we  are  not  actuated 
by  superstitious  motives  ; we  do  not  intend  to  worship  the  martyr  s blood,  but  when 
we  go  to  the  throne  of  grace  we  will  hold  up  that  blood  to  God,  that  it  may  cry  for 
vengeance  on  those  who  have  most  cruelly  shed  it.”  During  the  performance  of 
their  solemn  offices,  a respectable  young  gentleman,  unknown  at  the  time  to  any  of 
them,  but  afterward  discovered  to  be  Mr.  George  Stirling,  who  became  an  eminent 
surgeon  in  Edinburgh,  came  in  with  a vial  of  fragrant  ointment,  and,  without  utter- 
ing a word,  poured  upon  the  corpse  the  ointment,  which  diffused  through  the  whole 
building  a most  delightful  odor.  God  bless  you,  sir,”  exclaimed  one  of  the  ladies, 
“ for  this  labor  of  love  which  you  have  shown  to  the  slain  body  of  a servant  of  Jesus 
Christ”  Bowing  respectfully  to  the  ladies,  he  silently  retired.  “Janet  Bruce,” 
says  Wodrow,  “ who  was  Dr.  Sir  Thomas  Burnet’s  lady,  if  I have  not  forgotten, 
was  one  of  these  gentlewomen  that  put  their  napkins  in  Mr.  Guthrie’s  blood.” — 
W odrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  iii.,  p.  103.  M‘Crie's  Sketches  of  Scottish  Church  History, 
2d  edition,  p.  396. 


MRS.  JAMES  GUTHRIE. 


115 


uneasy  since  lie  had  heard  Mrs.  Guthrie  was  in  straits,  and  he 
had  little  money  by  him,  but  took  out  a purse  of  gold,  most  of  it 
old  Scots  coins,  of  which  he  was  very  curious,  and  told  him  he 
would  rather  have  sent,  if  he  had  had  it  by  him,  twice  the  value 
of  it  in  ordinary  money,  but  he  could  not  and  would  not  delay, 
and  gave  it  him,  and  sent  him  in  to  Edinburgh  express  with  it 
and  a letter  to  Mrs.  Guthrie.  It  was  to  the  value  of  five  hundred 
or  six  hundred  merks.*  Mr.  Lang  went  in  by  Glasgow  and 
borrowed  five  or  six  hundred  merks,  and  left  the  gold  in  pledge, 
carried  in  and  delivered  the  money  to  Mrs.  Guthrie.”! 

In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1666,  Mrs.  Guthrie  was  put  to 
trouble  on  account  of  a book  entitled  “ An  Apologetical  Relation 
of  the  Particular  Sufferings  of  the  Faithful  Ministers  and  Profes- 
sors of  the  Church  of  Scotland  since  August,  1660,”  which  was 
written  by  Mr.  John  Brown,  minister  of  Wamphray  at  the  Resto- 
ration, and  who,  on  being  banished  his  majesty’s  dominions  for 
faithfully  adhering  to  his  principles,  took  refuge  in  Holland. 
This  able  work  was  printed  in  Holland,  in  1665,  and  a number 
of  copies  were  sent  over  to  this  country.  The  government  being 
informed  of  the  character  of  the  book,  and  of  its  being  circulated 
in  various  parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  having,  upon  perusing  it 
themselves,  found  it,  to  use  their  own  language,  “ to  be  full  of 
seditious,  treasonable,  and  rebellious  principles,  contrived  of 
purpose,  to  traduce  the  king’s  authority  and  government,  the  pro  - 
ceedings of  the  late  parliament,  and  the  king’s  privy  council,” 
they  resolved  to  put  it  down.  As  it  vindicates  at  length  the 
marquis  of  Argyll  and  Mr.  James  Guthrie,  the  first  victims  who^ 
after  the  Restoration,  were  immolated  at  the  shrine  of  the  Moloch 
of  personal  revenge  and  arbitrary  power,  and  exposes  the  illegal- 
ity, injustice  and  cruelty  of  the  proceedings  of  the  government 
against  them,  it  was  natural  that  Mrs.  Guthrie  should  procure  a 
copy  of  the  book.  The  copy  she  had  got  being  found  in  her 
house,  probably  when  it  was  searched  for  some  of  the  covenant- 
ers— such  persons,  from  her  relation  to  Mr.  Guthrie,  and  from 
her  known  character,  being  suspected  of  resorting  to  or  taking 
shelter  under  her  roof — she  and  her  daughter,  Sophia  Guthrie, 
were  brought  before  the  privy  council  on  the  8th  of  February, 
1666.  On  appearing  before  them  they  were  required  to  declare 
upon  oath,  what  they  knew  as  to  the  author  of  the  book,  and  to 
discover  from  whom  they  had  received  it.  This  they  refused  to 

* That  is,  between  X28,  and  X33  sterling. 

t Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  i.,  p.  305.  Mr.  Lang  had  no  authority  to  pledge  the 
gold  coins,  but  knowing  the  value  which  Sir  George  Maxwell  set  upon  them,  he 
did  so  that  they  might  be  recovered  when  Sir  George  got  a supply  of  money. 


116 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


do,  upon  which  the  council  sentenced  them  both  to  be  sent  to 
Shetland,  there  to  be  confined  during  the  council’s  pleasure,  and 
to  be  kept  close  prisoners  till  they  should  be  transported  to  the 
place  of  their  banishment.  These  proceedings  were  not  only 
harsh,  but  illegal.  No  law  had  as  yet  been  published  against  the 
“ Apologetical  Relation.”  It  was  only  on  the  day  on  w;hich  this 
sentence  was  passed  upon  Mrs.  Guthrie  and  her  daughter  that 
the  council  emitted  their  proclamation  against  it,  ordaining  that, 
upon  the  14th  of  February  instant,  it  should  be  publicly  burned 
on  the  Fligh  street  of  Edinburgh,  near  to  the  market  cross,  by 
the  hand  of  the  hangman,  and  that  all  possessing  it  resident  on 
the  south  of  the  Tay,  should  deliver  the  same  to  the  sheriffs  of 
the  respective  shires  or  their  deputies,  to  be  by  them  transmitted 
to  the  clerk  of  the  privy  council  not  later  than  the  last  day  of 
February  instant,  and  those  on  the  north  of  the  Tay  not  later  than 
the  21st  of  March  next,  under  the  penalty  of  two  thousand  pounds 
Scots  money.  It  is  obvious,  then,  that  as  at  the  time  when  the 
‘‘  Apologetical  Relation  was  discovered  in  Mrs.  Guthrie’s  house, 
there  was  no  law  in  existence  forbidding  any  to  have  it,  its  being 
found  in  her  possession  was  no  crime  against  any  existing  stat- 
ute, and  that  consequently  the  sentence  pronounced  against  her 
and  her  daughter  was  arbitrary  and  illegal.  “ Where  no  law  is, 
there  is  no  transgression.” 

They  lay  in  prison  till  the  next  meeting  of  the  council,  which 
was  on  the  2d  of  March.  To  that  meeting  they  presented  a 
petition  praying  that  their  confinement  might  be  altered  to  some 
place  upon  the  Continent,  probably  intending,  should  they  be 
allowed,  to  remove  to  Holland,  which,  from  the  number  of  their 
expatriated  countrymen  resident  there,  as  well  as  from  the  char- 
acter of  the  country  itself,  though  it  is  not  one  of  the  best  of 
climates,  they  would  have  felt  a more  eligible  place  of  banishment 
than  so  remote,  solitary,  cold,  and  unhealthy  a part  of  the  world  as 
Shetland.  The  council  referred  their  petition  to  his  majesty’s 
commissioner,  with  power  to  do  in  the  matter  as  he  should  find 
cause.* 

What  punishment  the  commissioner  inflicted  upon  them  we 
are  not  directly  informed.  Mrs.  Guthrie,  however,  was  banished 
for  some  years  from  Edinburgh.  This  appears  from  a petition 
which  she  presented  to  the  privy  council  about  the  beginning  of 
January,  1669,  “ showing  that  her  only  son  was  in  Edinburgh 
under  a sad  distemper,  to  the  hazard  of  his  life,  and  therefore 
supplicating  that,  notwithstanding  her  confinement,  she  might  be 
**  Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  7. 


MRS.  JAMES  GUTHRIE. 


117 


licensed  for  some  time  to  come  to  Edinburgh  and  wait  upon  her 
son.”  The  council,  at  their  meeting  of  the  15th  of  January, 

upon  consideration  of  this  petition,  and  of  a testimonial  sub- 
scribed by  Dr.  Burnet,  which  was  at  the  same  time  presented, 
allow  the  petitioner  to  come  to  Edinburgh,  and  to  reside  therein 
until  the  fifteenth  day  of  February  next,  to  the  effect  above  men- 
tioned.”’^ 

Here  we  lose  sight  of  Mrs.  Guthrie  in  the  history  of  the  per- 
secution ; nor  have  we  discovered  how  long  she  lived  subse- 
quently to  this  period.  We  shall  therefore  close  this  sketch  with 
a brief  notice  of  her  only  son  referred  to  above,  whose  name  was 
William. 

At  the  time  of  his  father’s  death  he  was  a child  not  more  than 
four  or  five  years  old.  Yearning  over  him  with  all  the  affection 
of  a parent’s  heart,  Guthrie,  in  a last  interview,  took  him  upon 
his  knee,  and  gave  him  such  religious  advices  as  were  suited  to 
his  infant  mind.  “ Willie,”  said  he,  among  other  things,  “ though 
your  comrades  should  tell  you,  and  cast  it  up  to  you,  that  your 
father  was  hanged,  think  not  shame  of  it,  for  it  is  upon  a good 
cause.”  But  William  was  so  young  as  not  to  be  aware  of  the 
tragic  fate  of  his  father,  and  as  scarcely  to  be  restrained  from 
playing  in  the  streets  on  the  very  day  of  his  father’s  execution. 
When,  however,  he  grew  up  to  boyhood,  he  became  thoughtful 
and  serious.  While  other  boys  were  enjoying  their  youthful 
sports,  William  was  to  be  seen  at  the  Nether  Bow  Port,  where 
the  head  of  his  dear  father  was  fixed  on  a spike,  a monument  of 
the  martyr’s  heroism  and  of  the  government’s  injustice  ; and  there 
looking  up  with  riveted  gaze  to  the  manly  countenance,  the  trage- 
dy of  his  father’s  execution  was  presented  to  his  imagination  as 
if  in  all  its  living  reality.  Often  would  he  return  to  the  spot  and 
gaze  upon  the  spectacle,  as  if  he  could  never  become  weary  of 
gazing  upon  it ; and,  on  returning  home  to  his  mother,  when  she 
inquired  where  he  had  been,  his  usual  reply  was,  “ I have  been 
seeing  my  father’s  head.”  He  remembered  or  was  told  his  fa- 
ther’s last  advices  to  him ; he  read  his  father’s  last  speech  from 
the  scaffold,  a copy  of  which  the  martyr  subscribed  and  sealed, 
and  gave  to  his  friends,  to  be  kept  for  his  son  until  he  became 
older ; and  the  mantle  of  his  father  seemed  to  have  fallen  upon 
him.  As  he  grew  up,  his  habits  of  seriousness  increased — he 
was  much  employed  in  meditation,  study,  and  prayer. f Having 

* Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council. 

t Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  iii.,  p.  103.  Life  of  Guthrie,  in  Free  Church  Publica- 


118 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


devoted  himself  to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  he  prosecuted  the 
preparatory  studies  with  success,  and  gave  indications  of  much 
future  usefulness  ; but,  being  always  of  a delicate  constitution,  he 
was  cut  off  when  about  to  receive  license  as  a preacher  of  the 
gospel.  By  his  early  death  his  mother’s  hopes  of  seeing  him 
useful  in  the  church  below  were  disappointed.  It  was  not,  how- 
ever, the  will  of  God  that  he  should  be  employed  in  his  service 
on  earth,  and  she  doubtless  bowed  with  submission  to  the  sover- 
eign and  wise  determination  of  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  all  things, 
finding  in  this  a new  influence  to  attract  her  to  heaven,  and  a new 
motive  to  quicken  her  diligence  in  making  preparation  for  it. 

Mrs.  James  Durham,  whose  maiden  name  was  Margaret 
Mure,  was  the  fourth  daughter  of  William  Mure,  Esq.,  of  Glan- 
derston,  by  his  first  wife  Jean  Blair,  daughter  of  a gentleman  of 
that  name  in  the  west.*  She  was  born  August  26,  1618.  En- 
joying the  inestimable  blessing  of  religious  parents,  who  both 
set  before  her  a good  example,  and  trained  her  up  in  the  nurture 
and  admonition  of  the  Lord,  she  became  at  an  early  period  of 
life  the  subject  of  the  saving  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Educated 
too  in  the  strictest  principles  of  presbytery,  of  which  her  father 
was  a warm  supporter,  she  continued  through  life  to  maintain, 
them,  in  honor  and  dishonor,  through  evil  report  and  good  report. 
She  v/as  married  first  to  the  famous  Mr.  Zachary  Boyd,  minister 
of  the  Barony  church  of  Glasgow,  and  next  to  the  still  more  cele- 
brated Mr.  James  Durham,  as  his  second  wife.  But  she  became 
a widow  a second  time  in  1658,  Durham  having  died  on  the  25th 
of  June  that  year,  in  the  thirty-sixth  year  of  his  age.  She  sur- 
vived him  more  than  thirty  years,  living  during  that  long  period 
in  a state  of  widowhood.  Some  time  after  his  death,  she  appears 
to  have  changed  the  place  of  her  residence  to  Edinburgh.  At 

* Besides  Mrs.  Darham  and  a daughter,  Jean,  who  died  in  infancy,  Mr.  Mure  of 
Glanderston  had,  by  his  first  wife,  other  two  daughters — Ursula,  who  was  married 
to  William  Ralston  of  that  ilk,  and  Jean,  who  was  married  to  Mr.  James  Hamilton 
of  Hallcraigs,  a nephew  of  Lord  Claneboy : and  by  his  second  wife,  Jean  Hamilton, 
sister  to  Lord  Viscount  Claneboy,  he  had  Janet,  to  be  next  noticed,  who  was  mar- 
ried to  Mr.  .John  Carstairs;  Elizabeth,  who  was  married  to  Alexander  Dunlop,  min- 
ister of  Paisley ; and  Agnes,  who  was  married  to  William  Porterfield  of  Quarrelton. 
All  these  ladies  were  eminent  for  piety  in  their  day.  For  some  notices  of  Mrs. 
Ralston,  see  Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  hi.,  pp.  18,  20;  and  Mr.  John  Carstairs'  Let- 
ters, pp.  159-161.  In  Rutherfoi-d’s  Letters,  White  and  Kennedy’s  edition,  published 
1848,  there  is  a letter  of  Rutherford’s  to  this  lady,  printed  for  the  first  time  (p.  716). 
Elizabeth,  the  wife  of  Mr.  Dunlop,  for  being  present  at  a house  conventicle  in  Ed 
inburgh,  in  November,  1676,  was  imprisoned  by  order  of  the  privy  council,  till  she 
found  caution,  under  a thousand  merks,  to  remove  from  the  town  of  Edinburgh,  and 
six  miles  around  it. — Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  335. 


MRS.  JAMES  DURHAM. 


119 


least  she  was  residing  there  in  1666,*  and  subsequently  during 
the  period  of  the  persecution. 

After  Mr.  Durham’s  death,  she  carefully  preserved  his  manu- 
script lectures  and  sermons,  with  a view  to  their  being  published 
for  general  usefulness,  and  many  of  them  were  actually  published. 
Among  these  may  be  mentioned  his  “ Exposition  of  the  Song  of 
Solomon,”  to  which  she  has  prefixed  an  epistle  dedicatory,  signed 
and  apparently  written  by  herself,  to  the  viscountess  of  Kenmure  ; 
and  his  “Treatise  on  the  Ten  Commandments.”  This  latter 
work,  from  its  very  nature,  would  be  regarded  with  jealousy  by 
a persecuting  government,  whose  whole  policy  was  in  direct  op- 
position to  the  law  of  God,  and  some  difficulty  was  experienced 
when  it  was  first  printed,  in  obtaining  permission  to  its  being 
circulated  in  Scotland,  there  being  then  no  such  thing  as  the 
freedom  of  the  press  in  our  land.  Having  got  it  printed  in  Lon- 
don, Mrs.  Durham  presented  a petition  to  the  lords  of  the  privy 
council,  praying  them  to  allow  it  to  be  imported  from  England 
and  sold  in  Scotland.  The  council’s  answer  to  her  petition  is 
embodied  in  the  following  act : “ Edinburgh,  4th  of  November, 
1675.  The  lords  of  his  majesty’s  privy  council  having  consid- 
ered a petition  presented  by  Margaret  Mure,  relict  of  Mr.  James 
Durham,  late  minister  at  Glasgow,  do  recommend  to  the  bishop 
of  Edinburgh  to  revise  a book  written  by  the  petitioner’s  hus- 
band, entitled  ‘A  Practical  Exposition  of  the  Ten  Command- 
ments,’ which  is  already  printed  at  London,  and  to  report  his 
opinion  thereanent  to  the  council,  that  thereafter  they  may  give 
such  order  in  favor  of  the  petitioner  concerning  the  said  book  as 
they  shall  think  fit,  and  in  the  meantime  discharge  and  prohibit 
all  printers,  stationers,  and  others,  to  reprint  or  import  any  copies 
of  the  said  book,  under  the  pain  of  confiscation  of  the  same,  and 
such  other  penalties  as  the  council  shall  think  fit  to  inflict,  and 
appoint  intimation  to  be  made  hereof  to  the  stationers,  printers, 
and  others,  to  the  effect  foresaid.”t 

As  might  have  been  expected,  Mrs.  Durham  adhered  to  the 
faithful  ministers  who,  for  nonconformity,  had  been  ejected  from 
their  charges  to  make  way  for  the  establishment  of  prelacy  ; and, 
maintaining  the  freedom  of  Christ’s  embassadors  to  dispense  the 
ordinances  of  the  gospel,  not  only  without  licenses  from  the  civil 
magistrate,  but  even  when  the  civil  magistrate  has  peremptorily 

^ Mr.  William  Veitch,  in  his  Memoirs  (p.  38),  states  that  when  sent  on  a perilous 
mission  to  Edinburgh  by  the  covenanters,  previous  to  the  battle  of  Pentland  Hills, 
he  intended  to  reside  all  night  in  the  house  of  Mrs.  Durham,  which  was  in  Bristo 
street. 

t Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council. 


120 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


discharged  them  to  preach,  baptize,  or  perform  any  of  the  duties 
of  the  ministerial  office,  she  had  too  much  principle  and  spirit 
not  to  act  upon  these  sentiments.  She  was  accordingly  not  only 
a frequenter  of  conventicles,  but  an  encourager  of  these  inter- 
dicted meetings,  so  far  as  to  allow  them  to  be  held  in  her  own 
house.  For  a considerable  time  this  was  not  known  to  the  au- 
thorities of  Edinburgh,  or  it  was  overlooked  by  the  town-major, 
who  was  in  the  habit  of  accepting  money  as  a bribe,  not  to  inter- 
fere with  the  private  worshipping  assemblies  of  the  nonconform- 
ists in  the  city.  When,  however,  the  news  of  the  tragical  death 
of  Archbishop  Sharp,  which  took  place  May  3, 1679,  had  reached 
Edinburgh,  the  government  becoming  greatly  alarmed  and  irri- 
tated, such  as  kept  conventicles  in  their  own  houses,  or  frequented 
them,  were  exposed  in  an  increased  degree  to  danger  and  hard- 
ship. On  the  4th  of  May,  the  day  after  the  archbishop’s  death, 
a meeting  for  sermon  was  held  at  night  in  Mrs.  Durham’s  house. 
The  number  present  was  about  thirty,  and  the  most  of  them  were 
her  near  relations,  their  children  and  servants.  The  preacher 
was  Mr.  William  Hamilton,  a young  gentleman  of  eminent  piety, 
and  the  brother  of  Mr.  James  Hamilton,  of  Hallcraig,  who  was 
married  to  Mrs.  Durham’s  full  sistQr  Jean.  When  engaged  in 
religious  services,  this  peaceful  meeting  was  furiously  broke  in 
upon  by  the  town-major  with  a party  of  soldiers,  who,  seizing  all 
present,  committed  them  to  prison.  Mrs.  Durham  and  her  sis- 
ter, Mrs.  John  Carstairs,  who  was  one  of  the  hearers,  were,  with 
the  rest,  imprisoned  in  the  tolbooth  for  some  nine  or  ten  days, 
when  on  their  petitioning  the  privy  council,  an  order  was  granted 
for  their  being  set  at  liberty.  The  act  of  the  council  is  as  fol- 
lows : “ Edinburgh,  13th  of  May,  1679.  The  lords  of  his  maj- 
esty’s privy  council,  having  considered  a petition  of  Margaret 
Mure,  relict  of  Mr.  James  Durham,  and  Janet  Mure,  spouse  to 
Mr.  John  Carstairs,  for  themselves  and  their  children  and  ser- 
vants, and  divers  other  persons,  prisoners  in  the  tolbooth  of 
Edinburgh,  for  being  present  at  a conventicle  kept  in  the  house 
of  the  said  Margaret  Mure,  upon  the  4th  instant,  supplicating, 
that  in  regard  of  their  miserable  and  poor  condition,  the  council 
would  give  order  for  their  liberty,  the  said  lords  do  declare  the 
petitioners  free  of  any  restraint  or  imprisonment  by  their  warrant, 
and  remit  to  the  magistrates  of  Edinburgh  to  take  such  course 
with  them  as  they  shall  think  fit.”*  Wodrow  observes  that  it 
was  with  difficulty  that  some  of  their  friends  got  the  council  to 
pass  this  act  in  their  favor.f 
^ Decreets  of  Privy  Council. 


t Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  10. 


MRS.  JAMES  DURHAM. 


121 


For  this  conventicle  the  magistrates  of  Edinburgh  were  fined 
by  the  privy  council  in  the  sum  of  fifty  pounds  sterling,  accord- 
ing to  the  fifth  act  of  the  second  session  of  the  second  parliament 
of  Charles  II.,  by  which  act  it  is  expressly  provided  and  declared 
that  “ magistrates  of  burghs  are  liable,  for  every  conventicle  kept 
in  their  burghs,  to  such  fines  as  the  lords  of  privy  council  shall 
think  fit  to  impose.”* 

But  the  preacher,  Mr.  Hamilton,  was  most  severely  dealt  with. 
His  close  imprisonment  and  harsh  treatment  so  affected  his  health, 
that  after  some  weeks  he  became  dangerously  ill  of  cholera,  and 
though  his  friends  presented  a petition  to  the  privy  council,  pray- 
ing that  he  might  be  allowed  to  go  to  the  country  for  the  recovery 
of  his  health,  and  offered  to  give  bond  under  whatever  penalty 
they  chose  for  his  compearing,  if  his  life  should  be  spared,  yet 
this  petition,  notwithstanding  its  being  accompanied  with  the  at- 
testations of  two  physicians  as  to  his  extreme  danger,  was  not 
only  rejected,  but  the  council  assured  his  friends  that  they  in- 
tended to  prosecute  him  for  house  conventicles  at  their  next  meet- 
ing. Before,  however,  the  day  of  that  meeting  arrived,  this  ex- 
cellent young  man  died  in  prison  ; and  thus  he  may  be  said  to 
have  fallen  a martyr  to  the  free  preaching  of  the  gospel ; for  the 
only  charge  they  could  bring  against  him  was  his  delivering  a 
sermon  to  a few  friends  in  the  house  of  a relative,  without  being 
licensed  or  authorized  by  a bishop  ; and  his  death  being  caused 
by  the  inhuman  manner  in  which  he  was  treated,  the  guilt  of  it 
may  be  as  justly  laid  upon  the  government  as  if  they  had  sen- 
tenced him  to  be  hanged  at  the  Grassmarket.f 

The  following  anecdotes  concerning  Mrs.  Durham,  may  not 
be  deemed  unworthy  of  a place  in  this  brief  sketch,  as  they  serve 
to  illustrate  both  her  character  and  principles.  She  was  in  the 
habit,  it  would  appear,  of  visiting  such  of  her  friends  and  others 
as  were  imprisoned  for  their  steadfast  adherence  to  presbytery. 
Nor  were  her  visits  always  confined  to  those  of  whose  sentiments 
on  religious  and  ecclesiastical  questions  she  could  altogether  ap- 
prove. On  one  occasion  she  went  to  prison  to  see  some  females 
who  belonged  to  the  fanatical  sect  called  “ The  Sweet-Singers,” 
not  because  she  approved  of  their  opinions  and  practices,  but  be- 
cause she  felt  for  them  as  deluded  persons,  who  had  been  driven 
to  frenzy  by  the  violence  of  persecution.  In  this  instance,  how- 
ever, she  was  far  from  meeting  with  a cordial  reception.  Law, 
when  recording  the  imprisonment  of  five  men  and  ten  women  of 
this  sect,  who  were  taken  about  Gather  Moor  of  Borrowstounness, 

**  Decreets  of  Privy  Council,  May  15,  1679.  t Wodrow's  Hist.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  54. 

11 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


122 

says  : “ These  people  were  so  deluded  of  Satan,  as  that  they  did 
not  work,  contrary  to  that,  1 Thes.  iv.  11  ; nor  would  they  eat 
any  meat  given  them  by  the  council,  nor  drink  anything  that  paid 
excise  ; and  when  honest  women,  ministers’  wives,  came  to  see 
them,  they  began  to  rail  upon  them  and  upbraid  them  with  the 
name  of  Jezebel,  and  called  them  reprobates.  Mr.  Durham’s 
wife,  and  Mr.  William  Guthrie’s  wife,  were  so  upbfaided.”*  On 
visiting  Mr.  Robert  Baillie  of  Jerviswood,  in  prison,  she  met  with 
a very  different  character,  and  was  both  refreshed  and  instructed 
by  his  heavenly  spirit  and  Christian  conversation.  ‘‘  When  Mrs. 
Durham  came  to  him  that  morning  before  he  got  his  sentence, 
he  said  he  was  never  better,  and  within  a very  little  time  he 
would  be  well  beyond  conception.  He  said  they  are  going  to 
send  me  in  pieces  and  quarters  through  all  the  country ; but  let 
them  hagg  and  hew  all  my  body  in  as  many  pieces  as  they  please, 
I am  not  much  concerned  about  that ; for  I know  assuredly  there 
shall  be  nothing  of  me  lost,  but  all  these  members  shall  be  won- 
derfully gathered,  and  shall  all  be  made  like  his  glorious  body, 
the  body  of  his  glory.”t 

Mrs.  Durham  was  accustomed  to  attend  not  only  house-con- 
venticles, but  also  field-meetings,  which,  as  the  persecution  ad- 
vanced, became  necessary,  from  the  vast  multitudes  who  assem- 
bled to  hear  the  gospel.  The  acts  of  parliament,  and  manifold 
proclamations  of  the  privy  council,  by  which  these  meetings  were 
prohibited,  did  not  frighten  her  from  being  present  at  them ; nor 
did  the  opprobrious  names  of  unlawful  conventicles,”  “ semina- 
ries of  separation,”  and  rendezvouses  of  rebellion,”  applied  to 
them  by  the  government,  convince  her  that  it  was  criminal  to 
assemble  in  the  open  air  to  hear  the  glacTtidings  of  salvation, 
when  she  remembered  that  her  Savior,  in  the  fields  and  on  the 
mountain’s  brow,  taught  the  multitudes  who  crowded  around  him 
to  receive  the  lessons  of  wisdom  from  his  lips.  The  following 
anecdote,  relating  to  her  opinion  of  some  of  the  field-preachers, 
has  been  preserved  by  Wodrow  : “ Mr.  Patrick  Simson,”  says 
he,  “told  me  that  Mrs.  Durham,  when  reading  some  sermons  of 
the  high-fliers,  and  when  hearing  some  of  the  more  violent  of  the 
field-preachers,  said  that  she  observed  just  such  a difference  be- 
tween the  field-preachings  and  those  she  was  used  to,  as  she  did 
between  the  Apocrypha  and  the  Bible  when  she  read  them.”| 
Mrs.  Durham  seemed  to  refer  to  such  of  the  field-preachers  as, 
more  zealous  than  wise,  broke  forth  in  their  sermons  into  bitter 

* Law’s  Memorials,  pp.  185,  186. 

t Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  iii.,  p.  79.  t Ibid.,  vol.  i.,  p.  324. 


MRS.  JAMES  DURHAM. 


123 


invectives  and  uncharitable  censures  against  the  indulged  minis- 
ters. She  also,  apparently,  had  an  eye  to  the  indigested  and  su- 
perficial theology  of  their  discourses.  The  former  was  provoked, 
though  it  could  not  be  vindicated,  from  the  pretext  which  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  indulgence,  by  their  more  compromising  breth- 
ren, gave  to  the  government  to  persecute  the  non-indulged  with 
aggravated  severity.  The  latter  is  best  apologized  for  from  the 
little  leisure  they  had  for  reading  and  study,  in  consequence  of 
their  being  constantly  driven  about  from  place  to  place.  It  is 
not,  however,  alleged  that  she  pronounced  an  unfavorable  judg- 
ment on  all  the  field-preachers — a sweeping  sentence,  which 
could  not  have  been  supported  by  facts — the  most  of  them  being 
far  from  inclining  to  extremes,  while  many  of  them,  as  Welsh, 
Blackadder,  Riddell,  and  others,  preached  the  gospel  with  much 
acceptance,  as  well  as  with  remarkable  success,  including  among 
their  hearers  and  converts  not  a few  of  the  best  educated  in  the 
country. 

Another  anecdote,  recorded  by  the  same  industrious  collector, 
concerning  this  lady  and  two  ministers,  illustrates  how  galling 
and  oppressive  was  the  yoke  of  arbitrary  and  prelatic  domina- 
tion to  the  presbyterians,  and  how  ardently  they  longed  for  deliv- 
erance. Writing,  in  1731,  Wodrow  says  : “In  the  year  1685 
or  1686,  Mr.  Samuel  Arnot  died  at  Edinburgh,  after  all  the 
persecutions  and  sufferings  he  had  gone  through  since  Pentland, 
in  much  peace  and  joy.  There  was,  generally,  much  company 
that  came  and  saw  him  on  his  death-bed.  Among  others,  Mr. 
James  Rowat,  minister  at  Kilmarnock  before  the  Restoration, 
came  to  see  him,  and,  among  other  things,  he  asked  Mr.  Arnot 
if  he  had  any  hopes  the  church  of  Scotland  would  get  out  from 
under  this  dark  cloud  she  had  been  under  for  twenty-five  years 
or  thereby.  The  other  answered  he  had,  and  he  was  assured 
she  would.  ‘Yea,’  added  he,  ‘I  know  more,  and  that  is,  that 
you  shall  live  to  see  and  partake  of  the  church’s  delivery.’  And 
so  it  came  to  pass.  Mr.  Rowat  lived  till  1690,  or  a year  or  two 
later,  it  may  be,  and  saw  that  great  work  of  God  at  the  revolu- 
tion. Among  others  present  when  this  was  spoken,  that  good 
woman,  Mrs.  Durham,  relict  of  Mr.  Zachary  Boyd  and  Mr.  James 
Durham,  was  there,  and  she  got  up  and  said  to  Mr.  Rowat,  ‘ Mr. 
James,  I am  younger  than  you,  I hope  I shall  see  the  day  of  de- 
livery as  well  as  you,’  and  she  danced  and  skipped  for  joy  ; and 
so  it  came  about.  I was  at  her  burial,  at  Glasgow,  about  the 
year  1692  or  1693.”'' 

* W odrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  iv.,  p.  285. 


124 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


Mrs.  John  Carstairs,  sister  of  the  preceding,  was  the  eldest 
daughter  of  William  Mure,  Esq.,  of  Glanderston,  by  his  second 
wife,  Jean  Hamilton, ^a  daughter  of  Hans  Hamilton,  vicar  of  Dun- 
lop, and  sister  to  Lord  Viscount  Claneboy.  She  was  born  Feb- 
ruary 25,  1625.  Enjoying,  like  Mrs.  Durham,  the  blessing  of 
pious  parents,  she  early  devoted  herself  to  God ; and,  like  her, 
she  also  inherited  from  them  a zealous  attachment  to  presbyterian 
principles.  She  was  married  to  Mr.  John  Carstairs  in  1647  or 
1648,  when  he  had  been  just  settled,  or  when  he  was  about  to  be 
settled  minister  of  Cathcart,  where,  however,  he  did  not  long  re- 
main, having  been  translated  to  the  high  church  of  Glasgow,  in 
1650.  To  her  eminent  Christian  character  Mr.  Carstairs  fre- 
quently bears  testimony,  many  years  after  they  were  united  in 
marriage.  In  a letter  to  her,  dated  November  25,  1662,  he  thus 
writes  : “ I desire  to  bless  Him  that  ever  he  was  pleased  to  cast 
our  lot  to  be  together,  and  that  he  found  you  out  a help  meet  for 
me  : you  were  never  a temptation  to  me,  nor  an  obstruction  to 
me  either  in  my  ministerial  or  Christian  course,  though  you  have 
been  little  furthered  and  much  obstructed  by  me  ; but  he  can 
make  up  out  of  the  riches  of  his  grace  to  you  what  you  have  been 
now  these  fifteen  years  at  a loss  in  by  me.”*  And  in  another 
letter  to  her,  dated  August  12,  1664,  he  pronounces  upon  her  a 
still  higher  encomium  : “ I desire  to  bless  the  Lord  for  you  ; you 
have  been  to  me  indeed  a meet  and  faithful  help,  and  if  I had  more 
improved  your  fellowship  and  counsel,  your  discreet  and  wise 
counsel,  I am  not  ashamed  to  say  it  to  you,  I might  have  thriven 
better  as  a man,  as  a Christian,  and  as  a minister.  He  might 
very  justly,  for  my  sins,  deprive  me  of  such  a wife,  such  a moth- 
er, such  a friend,  such  a counsellor,  yea,  of  all  relations,  sweetly 
centred  in  such  a one.”t 

In  the  correspondence  between  Mrs.  Carstairs  and  her  hus- 
band, after  the  persecution  had  commenced,  we  have  a fine  illus- 
tration of  resolute  adherence  to  duty  amid  great  temptations  and 
dangers.  Several  of  the  letters  which  passed  between  them  have 
come  down  to  our  day,  and  while  from  these  it  is  manifest  that 
Mr.  Carstairs  was  a man  of  fortitude  and  magnanimity  in  the 
cause  of  Christ,  it  is  equally  apparent  from  them  that  Mrs.  Car- 
stairs was  not  inferior  to  her  husband  in  these  virtues. 

When  he  began  to  be  molested  for  his  presbyterian  principles, 
Mr.  Carstairs  applied  himself  to  the  task  of  fortifying  her  mind 
for  those  hardships  and  sufferings  which,  without  a direlection  of 
duty^  they  could  not  escape.  On  receiving  a summons,  on  the 
**  Letters  of  Mr.  John  Carstairs,  &c.,  pp.  91,  92.  t Ibid.,  p.  133. 


MRS.  JOHN  CARSTAIRS. 


125 


15tli  of  November,  1662,  to  appear  before  the  privy  comicil,  wri- 
ting to  her  from  Hallcraig,  on  the  very  day  on  which  he  received 
it,  he  thus  speaks  : “ I hope,  my  dear,  you  can  bear,  through  the 
grace  that  hath  often  strengthened  you  in  difficulties  that  have 
occurred  about  me  since  we  came  together,  to  hear  without  vex- 
ation of  mind,  that  I have  this  day  got  a charge  to  compear  before 
the  council  this  same  day  fourteen  days,  a double  whereof  I have 
sent  you.  It  may  be  He  will  pity  me  and  help  me.  The  cause 
is  good,  and  nothing  at  all  disgraceful.  Oh,  to  have  a suitable 
frame  every  way ! pray  for  it,  and  for  sinless  and  inoffensive 
through-bearing.  . . . Now,  my  heart,  let  me  beseech  you  to 
take  courage  in  the  Lord,  who  hath  given  you  a room  in  his  heart, 
and  will  in  due  time  give  you  a room  among  them  that  stand  by 
the  throne.  Resolve  to  endure  hardness  as  a good  soldier  of 
Jesus  Christ.  We  may  see  this  storm  blow  over,  if  kept  faith- 
ful, and  meet  with  higher  and  holier  things.”* 

In  like  manner,  when  on  his  being  summoned  to  appear  in 
April,  1664,  before  the  high  commission-court,  for  having  been  a 
witness  to  the  dying  testimony  in  favor  of  presbytery,  which  his 
brother-in-law,  Mr.  James  Wood,  professor  of  divinity  in  the  col- 
lege of  St.  Andrews,  left  behind  him,  he  fled,  to  escape  the  fury 
of  Archbishop  Sharp,  which  he  had  thus  provoked,  and  hid  him- 
self for  some  time  in  Ireland  and  the  west  of  Scotland,  he  thus 
encourages  her,  in  a letter  written  from  the  place  of  his  retreat, 
dated  May  27,  1664:  “If  at  this  next  meeting  [of  the  privy 
council]!  some  men  shall  be  cruel,  and  others  shall  disappoint 
us  and  prove  vanity  and  a lie,  think  it  not  strange,  neither  let  it 
trouble  you.  It’s  like  we  will  have  trouble  in  the  world ; but  if 
we  shall  have  peace  in  Him  that  hath  overcome  the  world,  we 
have  reason  to  be  of  good  cheer.  Let  us  quietly  and  patiently 
wait  for  our  sentence  in  these  courts  from  God,  which  though  as 
from  men  it  should  be  unjust  and  cruel,  yet  as  from  God  it  will 
be  just,  holy,  and  I hope,  good.”! 

The  high  Christian  sentiments  expressed  in  these  extracts 
were  not  now  for  the  first  time  presented  to  the  attention  of  Mrs. 
Carstairs.  They  had  long  been  familiar  to  her  mind,  and  amid 
the  trials  of  the  past  she  had  practically  exemplified  them.  “ It 
does  not  a little  satisfy  and  refresh  me,”  says  Mr.  Carstairs  in  a 
letter  to  her,  July  3,  1664,  “that  the  Lord  is  graciously  pleased 
to  keep  your  own  mind  calm  and  quiet ; and  indeed  it  hath  been 

* Letters  of  Mr.  John  Carstairs,  &c.,  pp.  91,  92. 

t Mr.  Carstairs,  about  the  end  of  April,  or  the  beginning  of  May,  had  also  been 
summoned  to  appear  before  the  privy  council. — Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  i.,  p.  412, 

t Letters  of  Mr.  John  Carstairs,  &c.,  p.  120. 

11* 


126 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


his  manner,  to  the  commendation  of  his  grace  be  it  spoken,  to 
bless  you  with  somewhat  of  that  mercy  in  most  of  the  difficulties 
you  have  been  in  Providence  trysted  with  since  our  being  to- 
gether— a mercy,  indeed,  and  highly  valuable,  without  which  the 
least  of  difficulties  will  easily  embitter  a very  well  accommoda- 
ted lot ; nay,  even  the  very  apprehension  of  a difficulty.”!  But 
having  counted  the  cost  of  self-sacrifice,  as  well  as  estimated  the 
rich  reward  of  present  peace  and  future  glory,  in  becoming  an 
humble  follower  of  Christ,  she  was  prepared  for  the  endurance 
of  severer  trials  than  had  hitherto  been  measured  out  to  her  ; and 
when  they  befell  her  she  encountered  them  with  a high  and  holy 
heroism.  On  this  subject  let  us  hear  her  speak  for  herself.  In 
a letter  she  addressed  to  Mr.  Carstairs,  without  date,  but  evident- 
ly written  when  he  was  forced  to  flee  for  his  connection  with 
Mr.  Wood’s  dying  testimony  for  presbytery,  we  have  a fine'illus- 
tration  of  the  strength  and  fearlessness  of  mind  which  true  reli- 
gion and  a good  cause  are  so  well  fitted  to  impart.  She  would 
not  have  him  unnecessarily  to  expose  himself  to  danger,  but 
trusts  that  should  he  fall  into  the  hands  of  his  persecutors,  grace 
would  be  given  him  to  witness  a good  confession.  She  encour- 
ages him  to  bear  with  magnanimity  the  inconveniences  of  his 
wanderings  from  place  to  place — to  quit  himself  like  a man  and 
be  strong ; and  she  thanks  God  for  having  united  to  her  a hus- 
band whom  he  counted  worthy  to  suffer  for  his  name’s  sake. 
The  following  is  the  letter  in  which  these  noble  sentiments  are 
expressed  : — 

“ My  Dearest  and  Most  Kind  Friend  : It  was  refreshing  to 
me  to  have  a line  from  you,  but  it  troubled  me  to  find  you  so 
heavy.  He  doeth  well  who  hath  found  it  meet  to  put  us  in  heavi- 
ness for  a season,  finding  that  there  was  need  of  it.  It  did 
wound  me  when  I read  that  in  yours — your  not  being  adverse  to 
come  here,  which  is  thought  by  your  friends  very  unmeet  and 
unreasonable  ; for  though  you  be  very  clear  as  to  the  cause,  yet 
to  cast  yourself  in  such  eminent  hazard  is  a wrong,  and  I am 
persuaded  you  are  not  called  to  it,  nay,  you  are  called  to  the 
contrary ; so  hide  as  well  as  you  can,  and  if  it  please  the  Lord 
so  to  order  you  be  found  out,  which  I wish  may  not  be,  I hope 
he  shall  glorify  himself  in  you  and  carry  you  honorably  through. 
Put  not  yourself  to  it  while  [until]  the  Lord  bring  you  to  it.  I 
hope  my  request,  which  is  so  reasonable,  shall  prevail  with  you. 
My  dear,  weary  not  in  wandering ; it  hath  been  the  lot  of  many 

Letters  of  Mr,  John  Cai'stairs,  &c.,  p.  126, 


MRS.  JOHN  CARSTAIRS. 


127 


of  liis  worthies  to  wander  in  caves  and  dens  of  the  earth ; and 
although  your  accommodation  should  be  very  bad,  so  that  you 
can  not  go  about  duties  as  you  would,  he  counts  your  wandering 
better  service  to  him  than  your  preaching.  My  dear,  a little 
while  will  put  an  end  to  all  our  troubles  ; as  for  myself,  I had 
reason  always  to  bless  the  Lord  that  ever  I knew  you,  and  this 
day  I desire  to  bless  him  more  than  ever,  that  ever  I was  so 
nearly  related  to  you,  and  that  I have  a husband  wandering  and 
suffering  for  the  truth.  Let  us  both  bless  him  together  for  this. 
He  might  have  given  me  one  that  was  persecuting  the  truth. 
The  Lord  strengthen  and  confirm  yod!  That  commodity  you 
desired  can  not  be  gotten  for  the  present,  though  they  be  most 
willing  to  give  it.  I hope  the  Lord  shall  provide  another  way  ; 
the  bearer  will  show  you  all  other  things.  The  Lord’s  blessing 
and  protection  be  with  you ! and  may  he  be  near  your  soul  with 
the  consolation  of  his  Spirit! — Farewell,  my  dear,  I am  your 
ov/n,  “J. 

As  a further  illustration  of  the  heroic  spirit  which  animated 
this  lady,  we  may  give  another  of  her  letters  to  Mr.  Carstairs, 
which  is  without  date,  but  which,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the 
allusion  in  the  commencement,  was  written  in  the  autumn  of  the 
year  1667,  after  he  had  been  denounced  a rebel,  and  outlawed. 
It  is  as  follows  : — 

My  Dearest  Friend  : The  bearer  will  show  you  how  all 
matters  here  go.  The  west  country  gentlemen  and  ministers, 
who  were  declared  rebels,  are  now  forfaulted.f  I bless  the 
Lord  it  nothing  troubles  me.  A smile  from  God,  and  the  lifting 
up  the  light  of  his  countenance,  can  make  up,  and  even  doth 

* Letters  of  Mr.  John  Carstairs,  &c  , p.,  157. 

t The  reference  here  is  to  a few  country  gentlemen  in  Renfrewshire,  who  had 
raised  a small  body  of  horse,  to  the  number  of  about  fifty,  with  the  design  of  joining 
the  covenanters  under  Colonel  Wallace,  previous  to  their  defeat  at  Pentland  hills; 
but  who,  on  learning  that  Dalziel  was  between  them  and  their  friends,  dispersed. 
Among  these  gentlemen  were  two  of  Mrs  Carstairs’  sisters’  husbands,  the  laird  of 
Ralston,  and  Porterfield  of  Quarrelton.  The  ministers  in  this  company,  besides 
Mr.  Carstairs,  were  Mr.  Gabriel  Maxwell,  minister  at  Dundonald,  and  Mr.  George 
Ramsay,  minister  at  Kilmaurs.  The  greater  number  of  these  gentlemen,  as  well 
as  many  other  individuals,  and  all  these  ministers,  except  Mr.  Ramsay,  together 
with  several  other  ministers,  were,  by  proclamation,  declared  rebels,  on  the  4th  of 
December,  1666.  On  their  being  afterward  pursued  by  Sir  John  Nisbit,  his 
majesty’s  advocate  before  the  justiciary  court,  for  treason,  that  court,  on  the  15th 
of  August,  1667,  upon  their  not  compearing,  decerned  them  “ to  be  denounced  rebels, 
and  their  lands  to  fall  to  his  majesty’s  use,  as  outlaws  and  fugitives  from  his  majesty’s 
laws  and  some  of  the  gentlemen,  though  none  of  the  ministers,  were,  on  the  16th 
of  that  month,  forfeited,  in  their  absence,  in  life  and  fortune. — Wodrow’s  History, 
vol.  ii.,  pp.  28,  36,  66,  67,  73-75. 


129 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


make  up,  all  the  injuries  man  can  do,  so  that  ‘ the  lines  are  fallen 
to  me  in  a most  pleasant  place,  and  I have  a goodly  heritage/  I 
think  my  lot  very  far  above  the  lot  of  my  adversaries ! Blessed 
be  God  who  made  the  difference  ; there  being  no  cause,  but  even 
so  because  it  pleased  him.  My  dear,  let  us  willingly  cleave  to 
him,  and  suffer  for  him.  We  owe  him  much.  How  much  are 
we  in  his  debt,  who  hath  added  this  mercy  to  all  the  former 
mercies,  that  he  hath  counted  us  worthy  to  suffer  [for]  his  name’s 
sake  ? O for  grace  to  be  steadfast  to  the  end,  and  that  he  would 
graciously  pardon  our  unfaithfulness  to  him  and  to  his  cause  and 
people ! Alas ! Zion’s  condition  lieth  not  near  my  heart  as  it 
should.  “J.  C.”* 

Mrs.  Carstairs  had  issue  by  her  husband,  three  sons  and  four 
daughters.  Her  son  William,  who  became  principal  of  the  uni- 
versity of  Edinburgh  after  the  Revolution,  was  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  men  of  his  day,  and  from  his  great  influence  with 
King  William,  whom  he  had  attended  in  all  his  campaigns,  was 
called  at  court  Cardinal  Carstairs.  None  of  her  children  had 
offspring  with  the  exception  of  her  daughters  Jean  and  Sarah, 
who  have  numerous  descendants.  Jean  married  Principal  Drew 
of  St.  Leonard’s  College,  St.  Andrews,  and  from  her  Principals 
McCormick  and  Hill  derived  descent.  Sarah,  the  fourth  daughter, 
and  the  youngest  of  the  family,  married  her  cousin-german, 
William  Dunlop, f principal  of  Glasgow  College  ; and  from  her, 
besides  other  eminent  men,  are  descended  the  present  Alexander 
Dunlop,  Esq.,  advocate,  and  the  Right  Honorable  David  Boyle, 
lord  president  of  the  court  of  session.  “ It  is  somewhat  singu- 
lar how  completely  the  descendants  of  Carstairs  are  mixed,  so 
far  as  the  distinctions  of  church  politics  are  concerned ; and  it 
can  not  but  draw  forth  a smile  from  any  one  versant  in  these 
matters  in  the  present  day,  to  observe,  on  the  same  genealogical 
table,  and  in  very  close  juxtaposition,  the  names  of  Dr.  George 
Cook,  professor  of  moral  philosophy,  St.  Andrews,  and  Mr.  Alex- 
ander Dunlop,  advocate,  Edinburgh.  Surely  none  would  have 
thought,  at  least  from  their  proceedings  in  church  courts,  that 
these  two  distinguished  and  opposite  leaders  of  the  church  were 
pears  of  the  same  tree.”J 

Letters  of  Mr.  John  Carstairs,  &c.,  p.  160.  See  another  of  Mrs.  Carstairs'  Let- 
ters in  Appendix,  No.  IV. 

t Her  aunt,  Elizabeth  Mure,  her  mother's  sister,  was,  as  we  have  said  before, 
married  to  Mr.  Alexander  Dunlop,  minister  of  Paisley,  who  was  the  principars 
father. 

t Life  of  Mr.  John  Carstairs,  prefixed  to  his  Letters,  by  the  Rev.  William  Ferrie, 
page  9. 


DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


129 


LADY  ANNE,  DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON. 

Lady  Anne,  Duchess  of  Hamilton,  was  descended  from  an 
ancient  and  honorable  family  which  originally  came  from  Nor- 
mandy,* and  which  at  one  time  was  for  fifty  years  together  pre- 
sumptive heir  to  the  crown  of  Scotland.  From  the  year  1543, 
when  King  James  V.  died,  leaving  his  only  daughter,  Queen 
Mary  but  a few  days  old,  till  the  year  1593,  when  Prince  Henry 
was  born,  there  were  only  Queen  Mary  and  her  son  King  James, 
of  the  royal  blood  ; and,  in  the  event  of  their  death,  the  crown 
would  have  fallen  by  right  to  the  then  representative  of  the  house 
of  Hamilton,  who  was  their  nearest  kinsman.! 

Lady  Anne  was  born  in  the  year  1630.  Pier  father,  James,  third 
marquis,  and  first  duke  of  Hamilton, J a distinguished  man  in  his 
day,  espoused  with  ardent  zeal  the  cause  of  Charles  I.,  in  which, 
however,  he  was  actuated  more  by  personal  attachment  to 
Charles  than  by  a sincere  desire  to  establish  prelacy,  or  to  ele- 
vate the  royal  prerogative.  He  was  his  majesty’s  high  commis- 
sioner to  the  famous  general  assembly,  which  met  at  Glasgow 
in  1638,  and  he  dissolved  it  abruptly;  but  the  dissolution  was 
disregarded,  and  the  assembly  continued  to  sit  until  they  abol- 
ished prelacy.  In  the  subsequent  year  he  was  sent  down,  by 
the  king’s  orders,  to  Scotland,  with  a fleet  and  three  regiments, 
to  subdue  the  covenanters,  and  appeared  in  the  firth  of  Forth. 
It  was  on  this  occasion  that  his  mother,  the  marchioness  dowager 
of  Hamilton,  headed  a troop  of  horse  on  the  shores  of  Leith  to 
oppose  his  landing.^  In  1648,  an  army  being  raised  in  Scotland 
with  the  design  of  rescuing  Charles  from  the  English  parliament, 
and  restoring  him  to  liberty  and  power,  without  his  being  required 
to  make  any  concessions  to  his  subjects,  the  duke  was  appointed 
by  the  parliament  commander-in-chief,  and  entered  England  in 
July,  1648.  But  the  enterprise,  which  is  usually  called  ‘‘The 

^ Douglas’s  Peerage  of  Scotland,  vol  i.,  p.  689. 

t Burnet’s  Preface  to  bis  Memoirs  of  the  Dukes  of  Hamilton. 

t He  was  created  duke  of  Hamilton,  marquis  of  Clydesdale,  earl  of  Arran  and 
Cambridge,  Lord  Avon  and  Tnnerdale,  by  patent,  dated  at  Oxford,  12th  April,  1643, 
to  him  and  the  heirs  male  of  his  body,  which  failing,  to  his  brother  and  the  heirs 
male  of  his  body,  which  failing,  to  the  eldest  heir  female  of  the  marquis’s  body, 
without  division,  and  the  heirs  male  of  the  body  of  such  heir  female,  they  bearing 
the  name  and  arms  of  Hamilton,  which  all  failing,  to  the  nearest  legitimate  heir 
whatsoever  of  the  marquis. — Douglas’s  Peerage  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.,  p.  704. 

} See  p.  35. 


130 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


Engagement,”  proving  unsuccessful,  ultimately  brought  him  to 
the  block.* 

The  mother  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch  was  Lady  Mary 
Fielding,  daughter  of  William,  earl  of  Denbigh,  and  Lady  Susan- 
na Villiers,  sister  to  the  duke  of  Buckingham.  This  lady  was 
married  to  her  father  when  he  was  only  in  the  fourteenth  year  of 
his  age.  “ Her  person,”  says  Burnet,  was  noble  and  graceful, 
like  the  handsome  race  of  the  Villiers  ; but,  to  such  as  knew 
her  well,  the  virtues  of  her  mind  were  far  more  shining.  She 
was  educated,  from  a child,  in  the  court,  and  esteemed  and  hon- 
ored by  all  in  it She  was  lady  of  the  queen’s  bed-cham- 

ber, and  admitted  by  her  majesty  into  an  entire  confidence  and 
friendship  ; and  not  only  was  her  honor  unstained,  but  even  her 
fame  continued  untouched  with  calumny,  she  being  so  strict  to 
the  severest  rules  as  never  to  admit  of  those  follies  which  pass 
in  that  style  for  gallantry.”  But  her  crowning  excellence  was 
her  genuine  piety.  Though  living  in  a court,  she  allowed  no 
day  to  pass  over  her  in  which  she  did  not  spend  large  portions 
of  her  time  in  devotional  exercises  in  her  closet.  She  had  to 
the  marquis  first  three  daughters,  Mary,  Anne,  and  Susanna ; and 
then  three  sons,  Charles,  James,  and  William;  but  all  her  sons 
and  her  eldest  daughter  died  young.  A year  before  her  death 
she  was  in  a languishing  condition,  and  at  last  fell  into  a con- 
sumption, which,  after  a few  months’  sickness,  carried  her  off. 
About  a month  previous  to  the  great  change,  calling  for  her  chil- 
dren, she  gave  them  her  last  blessing  and  embraces,  and  ordered 
that  they  might  not  be  brought  near  her  again,  lest  the  sight  of 
them  should  kindle  too  much  tenderness  in  her  mind,  which  she 
was  then  studying  to  raise  above  all  created  objects,  and  to  fix 
upon  the  things  of  eternity.  She  died  on  the  tenth  of  May, 
1638.t 

Thus  Lady  Anne,  in  the  eighth  year  of  her  age,  was  bereaved 
of  a valuable  mother,  from  whose  instructions  and  example,  her 
opening  mind,  as  may  reasonably  be  supposed,  might  have  derived 
the  greatest  advantage.  Her  religious  education  does  not,  how- 
ever, appear  to  have  been  neglected.  Her  father,  who  had  been 
trained  up  by  a pious  mother,  and  who,  there  is  reason  to  hope, 
notwithstanding  the  errors  of  his  public  life,  into  which  he  was 
betrayed  by  his  warm  loyalty  and  ardent  ambition,  had  not  ceased 
to  make  religion  a matter  of  personal  concern,  always  recom- 
mended to  her  the  fear  and  love  of  God,  as  that  in  which  he 

* Douglas’s  Peerage  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.,  p.  704,  705. 

t Burnet’s  Memoirs  of  the  Dukes  of  Hamilton,  p.  407. 


DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


131 


himself  had  found  his  only  joy  and  repose.  The  following  words 
are  a part  of  one  of  his  letters  to  her  and  her  sister,  Lady  Su- 
sanna, which  he  wrote  a little  before^  his  going  to  England  on 
the  fatal  enterprise  of  the  Engagement : In  all  crosses  even  of 
the  highest  nature,  there  is  no  other  remedy  but  patience,  and 
with  alacrity  to  submit  to  the  good  will  and  pleasure  of  our  glo- 
rious Creator,  ^d  be  contented  therewith,  which  I advise  you 
to  learn  in  your  tender  age,  having  enjoyed  that  blessing  myself, 
and  found  great  comfort  in  it  while  involved  in  the  midst  of  infin- 
ite dangers.’'* 

When  only  a child,  she  was  promised  in  marriage  to  Lord 
Lorn,  eldest  son  of  the  marquis  of  Argyll,  who  suffered  in  1661. 
About  the  eleventh  year  of  her  age,  in  1641  or  1642,  a contract 
of  marriage  was  agreed  to  betwixt  her  father  on  her  part,  and  the 
marquis  of  Argyll  on  the  part  of  his  son.  Lord  Lorn,  to  be  cele- 
brated when  the  two  children  should  be  of  age.  The  marriage 
portion  is  a hundred  thousand  merks,  the  yearly  jointure  fifteen 
thousand  merks,  and  the  penalty  to  him  who  resiled  thirty-six 
thousand  merks,  all  remedy  of  law  excluded.!  These  two  noble- 
men were  then,  and  had  been  for  a considerable  time  before,  on 
terms  of  very  intimate  friendship,  but  shortly  after  this  contract 
was  signed,  their  sweetest  wine  became  their  sourest  vinegar 
for  they  fell  out  and  assumed  positions  of  mutual  hostility.  Ham- 
^ ilton  supported  Charles  : Argyll,  changing  his  opinions,  became 
the  uncompromising  champion  of  the  covenanters.  Two  great 
parties  thus  came  to  be  formed  in  the  nation,  of  which  these  two 
noblemen  were  the  respective  heads  ; the  one  called  the  Hamil- 
tonsj  the  other,  the  Campbells  ; and  the  Engagement  was  the 
great  point  upon  which  they  were  divided.  In  consequence  of 
these  differences,  the  contemplated  marriage  between  Lady  Anne 
and  Lord  Lorn  never  took  place.  1| 

In  times  of  civil  commotion  like  those  which  then  passed  over 
Scotland  and  England,  the  leaders  of  the  contending  parties  are 
peculiarly  exposed  to  the  risk  of  falling  a sacrifice  to  the  fury  of 
one  another ; and  Lady  Anne  was  doomed  to  undergo  the  trial 
of  seeing  her  father,  upon  the  disastrous  issue  of  the  Engagement, 
condemned  to  suffer  a violent  death.  His  forces  being  routed 
by  the  English  at  Preston,  on  the  20th  of  August,  he  surrendered 

* Burnet’s  Memoirs  of  the  Dukes  of  Hamilton,  p.  404. 

t Descriptive  Catalogue  of  the  Hamilton  Papers  in  the  Miscellany  of  the  Maitland 
Club,  vol.  iv.,  p.  202. 

t Scot  of  Scotstarvet’s  Staggering  State  of  Scots  Statesmen. 

II  Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  pp.  178,  192,  198.  Burnet's  Memoirs  of  the  Dukes 
of  Hamilton,  p.  204. 


132 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


himself  to  Lambert,  at  Uttoxeter,  on  the  25th  of  that  month,  and 
was  imprisoned  at  Windsor.  He  succeeded  in  making  his  es- 
cape, but  was  retaken  at  Southwark,  and  committed  to  prison  at 
St.  James’s.  While  he  lay  there,  urgent  applications  were  made 
to  the  marquis  of  Argyll,  who  had  then  the  chief  power  in  Scot- 
land, that  the  committee  of  estates  would,  as  a means  of  saving 
at  least  his  life,  own  that  what  he  did  was  by  the  authority  of 
that  kingdom ; but  Argyll  declined  to  interfere.  Lady  Anne 
herself  left  no  means  untried  to  prevail  with  him  to  interpose  for 
the  life  of  her  father  ; but  her  exertions  were  without  effect ; for, 
he  said,  that  since  the  English  had  murdered  their  king,  not- 
withstanding the  protest  of  the  Scottish  commissioners  against 
the  deed,  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  interposition  of  the 
most  influential  in  Scotland  in  other  things  would  be  of  any 
weight ; nor  was  it  fit  they  should  any  more  address  the  murder- 
ers of  their  sovereign. 

On  the  6th  of  February,  1649,  her  father  was  brought  to  trial 
before  the  same  court  which  had  condemned  Charles  to  the  block, 
and  on  the  6th  of  March  he  was  sentenced  to  be  beheaded  on 
Friday,  the  9th  of  that  month.  In  terms  of  the  sentence,  he  was 
executed  in  palace-yard,  Westminster,  in  the  forty-third  year  of 
his  age.  He  died  in  a very  pious  manner,  and  with  much  forti- 
tude. Flaving  delivered  his  last  speech  on  the  scaffold,  he 
uttered  a most  fervent  prayer,  concluding  with  these  words,  “ O 
glorious  God  ! O blessed  Father  ! O holy  Redeemer  ! O gracious 
Comforter  ! O holy  and  blessed  Trinity ! I do  render  up  my  soul 
into  thy  hands,  and  commit  it  to  the  mediation  of  my  Redeemer, 
praising  thee  for  all  thy  dispensations,  that  it  hath  pleased  thee 
to  confer  upon  me,  and  even  for  this.  Praise  and  honor,  and 
thanks  be  to  thee  from  this  time  forth,  and  for  evermore  !”  After 
some  religious  discourse  with  Dr.  Sibbald,  whom  he  chose  as 
his  chaplain,  on  the  scaffold,  and  who  exhorted  him  to  look  to 
the  fountain  of  the  blood  of  Christ  as  his  only  hope,  he  embraced 
his  servants  who  were  present,  commending  their  fidelity  to  him, 
and  praying  the  Lord  to  bless  them.  He  then  turned  to  the  ex- 
ecutioner and  told  him  he  was  to  engage  shortly  in  prayer  while 
he  lay  with  his  head  on  the  block,  after  which  he  should  give 
him  a sign,  by  stretching  out  his  right  hand,  telling  him,  at  the 
same  time,  that  he  freely  forgave  him,  as  he  did  all  the  world. 
Upon  the  giving  of  the  sign,  the  executioner  at  one  blow  severed 
the  head  of  the  unfortunate  nobleman  from  his  body,  which  was 
received  in  a crimson  taffety  scarf,  by  two  of  his  servants  kneel- 
ing by  him,  and  was,  together  with  his  body,  immediately  put  in 


DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


133 


a coffin,  which  was  ready  on  the  scaffold,  and,  according  to  his 
orders,  sent  down  by  sea  to  Scotland,  and  interred  in  his  family 
burial  place  at  Hamilton.* 

To  Lady  Anne,  who  was  now  in  the  nineteenth  year  of  her 
age,  and  to  her  sister,  Susanna,  who  was  somewhat  younger, 
this  was  a great  affliction.  The  loss  of  a father  who  loved  them 
with  an  almost  unequalled  parental  tenderness,  and  to  whom  they 
reciprocated  the  tenderest  filial  affection,  was  calculated,  consid- 
ered in  all  its  distressing  circumstances,  to  lacerate  their  feelings 
in  the  most  painful  manner ; and  the  more  especially  at  their 
green  age,  wfflen  the  feelings  were  most  tender,  and  when,  con- 
sequently, the  bereavement  would  pierce  the  heart  with  the 
intensest  agony.  It  was  happy  for  them  that  in  their  uncle,  Duke 
William,!  who  was  distinguished  for  his  personal  piety,  as  well 
as  for  his  accurate  views  of  divine  truth,  they  found  a relative 
both  affectionately  disposed,  and  well  qualified  to  administer  to 
them  the  religious  comfort  they  needed,  and  to  take  the  place  of 
their  father  in  caring  for  them.  Lady  Anne,  Avho  had  already 
given  evidence  of  the  pious  temper  of  her  mind,  sought  under 
this  dispensation  consolation  in  religion ; and,  by  Divine  grace, 
she  was  enabled  to  exercise  that  Christian  resignation  and  sub- 
mission to  the  will  of  God,  which  is  our  bounden  duty  under  the 
greatest  trials  of  life. 

The  last  memorial  she  and  her  sister  received  of  their  father  s 
affection  for  them,  was  a letter  which  he  wrote  to  them  on  the 
day  of  his  execution,  but  which  would  not  come  to  their  hands 
till  he  had  passed  from  time  into  eternity.  It  is  as  follows  : — 

“ My  most  Dear  Children  : It  hath  pleased  God  to  dispose 
of  me,  as  I am  immediately  to  part  with  this  miserable  life  for  a 
better ; so  that  I can  not  take  that  care  of  you  which  I both  ought 
and  would,  if  it  had  pleased  my  gracious  Creator  to  have  given 
me  longer  days  : but  his  will  be  done,  and  I with  alacrity  submit 
to  it,  desiring  you  to  do  so,  and  that  above  all  things  you  apply 
your  hearts  to  seek  him,  to  fear,  serve,  and  love  him ; and,  then, 
doubt  not  but  he  will  be  a loving  father  to  you  while  you  are  on 
earth,  and  thereafter  crown  you  with  eternal  happiness.  Time 
will  permit  me  to  say  no  more,  so  the  Lord  bless,  guide,  and  pre- 
serve you,  which  is  the  prayer  of  your  most  loving  father, 

“ St.  James’s,  9th  March,  1649.  “ Hamilton. 

* Burnet’s  Memoirs  of  the  Dukes  of  Hamilton,  pp.  401-405. 

t Their  father  was  succeeded  in  his  titles  and  estates,  in  terms  of  the  patent,  by 
his  brother  William. 


12 


134 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


‘‘Let  this  remember  me  to  my  dear  sisters,  brothers,  and  other 
friends,  for  it  is  all  I write.”*' 

On  the  day  preceding  his  execution,  he  had  written  a letter 
to  his  brother  William,  requesting  him  to  be  a father  to  his  two 
daughters,  that  they  might  not  be  forced  to  marry  against  their 
wills.  Nor  did  Duke  William  fail  in  the  duty  he  owed  to  these 
orphans.  “He  entailed  his  friendship  for  him  [his  brother],” 
says  Burnet,  “ on  his  daughters,  who  have  desired  me  to  acknowl- 
edge to  the  world  that  in  him  they  met  with  the  tenderness  of  a 
father,  the  kindness  of  a friend,  and  everything  that  was  gener- 
ously noble  and  obliging.”  So  high  was  the  opinion  he  formed 
of  Lady  Anne  that,  at  his  going  to  England,  he  professed  he  was 
glad  he  had  no  sons  to  lie  in  her  way  to  the  enjoyment  of  her 
father’s  estates  and  honors,  adding,  that  if  he  had  forty  sons,  he 
rather  wished  it  to  her  them  he  could  do  to  any  of  them.  On 
his  part,  nothing  was  wanting  to  promote  her  happiness  : what- 
ever his  estates  could  procure  was  at  her  command,  and  the  au- 
thority with  which  he  invested  her  at  so  early  an  age,  indicates 
the  confidence  he  placed  in  her  judgment  and  discretion.  Writing 
to  her  from  Campheer,  10th  June,  1649,  he  says,  “ Dear  Niece  : 
Amongst  all  my  just  afflictions,  there  is  none  lies  so  heavy  upon 
me  as  that  I am  still  made  incapable  of  paying  that  duty  to  you 
which  I owe  you.  It  is  the  greatest  debt  I owe  on  earth,  and 
which  would  most  joy  me  to  pay,  as  well  from  inclination  as 
from  nature  and  obligations  ; but  all  happiness  being  denied  me, 
I can  not  hope  for  that  which  would  be  the  greatest.  Before 
this  I hope  you  are  settled  in  Hamilton,  where  you  have,  as  is 
most  just,  the  same  power  your  father  had,  and  I beseech  you  to 
dispose  as  absolutely  upon  everything  that  is  there.  All  I have 
interest  in,  so  long  as  they  will  acknowledge  me,  will  obey  you ; 
and  I shall  earnestly  beg,  that,  if  there  be  any  failings,  (either 
from  persons,  or  in  providing  what  you  shall  think  fit  to  call  for, 
which  the  fortune  can  procure,  you  advertise  me  thereof,  and  if 
it  be  not  helped,  (so  my  fortune  can  do  it),  let  me  be  as  infamous 
as  I am  unfortunate.  I will  trouble  you  no  longer,  but  pray  the 
Lord  to  bless  you  with  comfort  and  health. — Dear  niece,  your 
real  servant,  “ Hamilton.”! 

As  a farther  proof  of  his  esteem  and  affection  for  her,  he  nom- 
inated and  appointed  her  (failing  heirs  male  of  his  own  body) 
his  sole  executrix,  in  his  last  will,  written  by  himself,  at  the 
Hague,  in  Holland,  on  the  28th  day  of  May,  1650,  and  freely 

Burnet's  Memoirs  of  the  Dukes  of  Hamilton,  p.  397.  t Ibid. 


DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


135 


bequeathed  to  her  all  his  jewels,  silver  plate,  hangings,  picture- 
broads,  and  whatsoever  goods  were  his  to  be  disposed  of.  ” And 
after  nominating  and  appointing,  in  the  event  of  her  removal  by- 
death  before  himself,  her  sister,  Susanna,  his  sole  executrix,  and 
freely  bequeathing  to  her  the  foresaid  articles,  he  recommends 
the  care  of  his  five  daughters  to  such  of  his  nieces  as  should 
succeed  to  his  dignity  and  estate,  expressing  his  confidence  that 
they  would  be  careful  of  their  education  and  faithful  in  paying 
them  what  had  been  provided  for  them.* 

We  shall  quote  at  length  another  of  the  letters  of  this  amiable 
man  to  Lady  Anne,  both  because  it  affords  a pleasing  illustration 
of  his  own  Christian  character,  and  because,  from  its  tone,  it  is 
evident  that  she  had  then  been  brought,  in  good  earnest,  to  attend 
to  the  things  of  God  and  eternity.  The  letter  was  written  only 
eight  days  after  the  terrible  defeat  and  slaughter  which  the  Scot- 
tish royalists  sustained,  on  sabbath,  July  20,  1651,  at  Inverkeith- 
ing,  in  Fife,  from  the  English  parliamentary  army  under  Crom- 
well, f This  disaster  greatly  discouraged  the  royalists  ; and  what 
rendered  their  condition  still  more  desperate  was,  that  Cromwell 
was  now  between  the  king  and  the  northern  counties  of  Scotland, 
which  were  most  devoted  to  the  king’s  interest,  and  from  which 
he  expected  provisions  and  supplies  of  men.  It  being  thus  im- 
possible to  maintain  the  war  longer  in  Scotland,  his  majesty  re- 
solved to  march  into  England,  where  he  hoped  for  large  addi- 
tional forces.  But  many  of  his  soldiers,  and  some  of  his  officers, 
broken  in  spirit  by  their  late  defeat,  and  despairing  of  future  suc- 
cess, deserted  the  army.  It  was  in  these  circumstances,  and 
when  about  to-march  into  England,  that  Duke  William  wrote  the 
following  letter J : — 

“ Dear  Niece  : Indeed  I know  not  what  to  say  to  you ; T 
Mmuld  fain  say  something  more  encouraging  than  my  last  was, 
but  I can  not  lie  ; our  condition  is  no  better,  and  since  that  time 
we  have  a thousand  men  (I  fear  twice  that  number)  run  from  our 
army.  Since  the  enemy  shuns  fighting  with  us,  except  upon 
advantage,  we  must  either  starve,  disband,  or  go  with  a handful 
of  men  into  England.  This  last  seems  to  be  the  least  ill,  yet  it 
appears  very  desperate  to  me  for  more  reasons  than  I would 

Commissariot  of  Edinburgh,  28th  of  September,  1652,  MS.  in  her  majesty’s 
register  house,  Edinburgh.  In  that  record,  the  will  of  the  duke  is  recorded  at 
length.  It  is  a very  interesting  document,  from  the  remarkably  pious  spirit  which 
it  breathes  throughout. 

t So  prodigious  was  the  slaughter,  that  a rill  at  the  scene  of  action,  called  Pinker- 
ton Bum,  is  said  to  have  run  red  with  blood  for  three  days. 

t Burnet’s  Memoirs  of  the  Dukes  of  Hamilton,  p.  427. 


136 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


trouble  you  with ; I fear  your  own  reason  will  afford  you  too 
many.  Dear  niece,  it  is  not  your  courage  I will  desire  you  to 
make  use  of  in. this  extremity ; look  for  strength  to  bear  it  from 
a higher  power  ; all  your  natural  virtues  will  not  resist  it ; there- 
fore, look  to  Him  who  hath  in  former  times  assisted  you  to  resist 
a great  affliction,  and  can  do  it  again,  if  you  seek  to  him  aright ; 
you  have  already  lost  so  much,  that  all  other  worldly  losses  were 
drowned  in  that.  Those  you  meet  with  now  are  Christian  exer- 
cises, wherewith,  ofttimes,  the  Lord  visits  his  own,  to  wean  their  af- 
fections from  things  here  below,  that  we  may  place  them  upon  him- 
self, in  whom  we  have  all  things  ; and  if  we  could,  as  we  ought, 
set  our  hearts  upon  him,  we  should  find  ourselves  very  little  con- 
cerned in  most  things  which  bring  us  greatest  trouble  here  on 
earth,  where  we  are  but  for  a minute  in  our  way  to  eternity.  O ! 
consider  that  word  eternity,  and  you  will  find  that  we  struggle 
here  for  that,  that’s  even  less  than  nothing ; why  trouble  we  our- 
selves for  earthly  losses  ? for  when  we  have  lost  all  we  have, 
there  are  thousands  as  dear  to  God  as  we,  as  poor  as  we.  We 
are  rich  though  we  lose  the  whole  world  if  we  gain  him : let  us 
set  before  our  eyes  the  example  of  those,  who,  to  give  testimony 
to  the  truth,  rejoiced  to  lay  down  their  lives  ; nay,  let  us,  with 
humble  presumption,  follow  the  pattern  of  our  blessed  Savior, 
who  for  our  sakes  suffered  more  than  man  can  think  on,  the  bur- 
den of  all  our  sins,  and  the  wrath  of  his  Father:  and  shall  we 
then  repine  to  lay  down  our  lives  for  him  when  he  calls  for  it 
from  us,  to  give  us  a nearer  admittance  to  him  than  we  can  hope 
for  while  we  are  clogged  with  our  clay  tenements.  Dear  niece, 
I should  never  be  weary  to  talk  with  you,  though  this  be  a sub- 
ject, I confess,  I can  not  speak  of  well ; but  even  that  happi- 
ness is  bereft  me,  by  the  importunity  of  a crowd  of  persons  that 
are  now  in  the  room  with  me,  grudging  the  time  I take  in  telling 
you  that  while  I am,  I am  yours,  &c.  “ [Hamilton.] 

“ Stirling,  28th  July,  1651.”* 

Duke  William,  having  proceeded  to  England  and  engaged  in 
battle  with  Cromwell’s  forces  at  Worcester,  was  mortally  wound- 
ed. After  receiving  the  wound,  and  feeling  that  his  end  was 
approaching,  he  wrote  to  his  lady  a letter,  which  contains  the  fol- 
lowing reference  to  Lady  Anne  and  her  sister : I will  not  so 
much  as  in  a letter  divide  my  dear  nieces  and  you.  The  Lord 
grant  you  may  be  constant  comforts  to  one  another  in  this  life, 
and  give  you  all  eternal  happiness  with  your  Savior  in  the  life 

* Burnet's  Memoirs  of  the  Dukes  of  Hamilton,  p.  426. 


DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


137 


to  come  ! To  both  of  your  cares  I recommend  my  poor  children. 
Let  your  great  work  be  to  make  them  early  acquainted  with  God, 
and  their  duties  to  him  ; and  though  they  may  suffer  many  wants 
here  before  removal  from  hence,  yet  they  will  find  an  inexhaust- 
ible treasure  in  the  love  of  Christ.’’ 

This  nobleman  died  on  the  12th  of  the  month  on  which  the 
above  letter  is  dated,  nine  days  after  he  had  received  the  wound, 
in  the  thirty-fifth  year  of  his  age,  and  was  interred  in  the  cathe- 
dral church  of  Worcester.* 

After  her  uncle’s  death.  Lady  Anne,  who  succeeded  him  in  his 
titles  and  estates,  experienced  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune  to  which 
many  of  the  Scottish  nobility  were  subjected  for  their  opposi- 
tion to  Cromwell,  who  had  now  laid  Scotland  prostrate  at  his 
feet.  Her  father  was  excepted  from  the  benefit  of  Cromwell’s 
act  of  grace  and  pardon,  in  1654,  and  his  estates  were  forfeited, 
four  hundred  pounds  a year  being  reserved  out  of  them  to  Lady 
Anne,  and  two  hundred  pounds  a year  to  her  sister. f This  was 
no  doubt  sufficient  to  secure  them  from  privation ; but  for  a fam- 
ily to  be  thus  reduced  which  once  possessed  ample  revenues,  and 
was  at  one  time  presumptive  heir  to  the  Scottish  throne,  afforded 
a striking  instance  of  the  mutability  of  worldly  wealth  and  great- 
ness. Whether  even  this  sum  was  regularly  paid  we  do  not  know  ; 
but  it  is  affirmed  by  tradition  that,  for  a series  of  years,  she  was 
in  so  impoverished  a condition  as  to  have  been  dependent  upon 
a faithful  female  servant — the  only  one  that  remained  with  her — 
who  employed  herself  incessantly  in  spinning  to  procure  the 
means  of  subsistence  for  her  grace  .:j:  It  is  pleasing,  on  the  same 
authority,  to  record  that,  when  the  Restoration  put  an  end  to  the 
misfortunes  of  the  duchess  by  reinvesting  her  with  her  estates, 
she  “ expressed  her  gratitude  to  her  affectionate  domestic  by  the 
substantial  gift  of  a piece  of  land,  near  Lesmahago,  sufficient  to 
maintain  her  in  ease  and  comfort  all  the  rest  of  her  life.”|| 

During  Cromwell’s  administration  she  resided  alternately  at 
Brodwich  castle  in  Arran,  and  Strathaven  castle,  which  was  from 
an  early  period  one  of  the  seats  of  the  Hamilton  family. § The 
castle  of  Strathaven,  or  Avondale,  stands  upon  a rocky  eminence 
at  the  town  of  Strathaven,  on  the  banks  of  a small  rivulet  called 

* Anderson’s  Memoirs  of  the  House  of  Hamilton,  p.  145. 

t Don^las’s  Peerage  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.,  p.  706. 

t Tradition,  in  this  instance,  has  probably  to  some  extent  exaggerated  the  facts 
of  the  case. 

S Chambers’s  Picture  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.,  pp.  349,  350. 

It  is  said  to  have  been  built  by  Andrew  Stewart,  grandson  of  Murdoch,  duke 
of  Albany. — New  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland,  Lanarkshire,  Avondale^ 

12* 


138 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


Pomilion,  which  winds  round  the  greater  part  of  it,  and  falls  into 
the  Avon  about  a mile  below.  Though  now  in  a very  dilapida- 
ted state,  it  was  then  in  good  condition  and  a place  of  consider- 
ble  strength,  being  surrounded  by  a strong  wall,  with  turrets  at 
certain  distances,  and  having  the  entrance  secured  by  a draw- 
bridge. A tradition  is  still  current  at  Clydesdale  respecting  the 
duchess,  while  she  resided  in  this  castle  in  the  time  of  Crom- 
well, which  places  her  fortitude  in  adversity  in  a very  interest- 
ing light,  and  reminds  us  of  the  fearless  spirit  of  her  grandmother. 
To  the  hero  of  the  commonwealth,  whose  vengeance  was  directed 
against  her  family  on  account  of  that  determined  opposition  to 
him  which  had  issued  fatally  both  as  to  her  father  and  uncle,  she 
had,  as  might  be  anticipated,  no  friendly  feelings  ; and  it  is  said 
that  when  one  of  his  generals  passed  the  castle  with  some  military 
going  from  Hamilton  to  Ayrshire,  she  gave  orders  to  fire  upon 
him  as  he  approached  the  town  of  Strathaven.  The  general  in- 
quired who  lived  there,  and  being  told  it  was  a lady,  he  replied, 
“ She  must  be  a bold  woman,  indeed.”*  In  the  days  of  her  ad- 
versity, her  tenants  and  vassals  in  that  neighborhood  showed  to 
her  ardent  friendship  and  attachment.  This  she  never  forgot, 
when  favored  with  more  prosperous  days  ; and  she  made  an  an- 
nual visit  to  Strathaven  at  the  celebration  of  the  Lord’s  supper, 
till  she  was  prevented  by  the  infirmities  of  old  age.f 

In  the  year  1656,  she  was  married  to  Lord  William  Douglas, 
eldest  son  of  William,  first  marquis  of  Douglas.  He  was  born 
24th  December,  1634,  and  created  earl  of  Selkirk,  Lord  Daer 
and  Shortcleuch,  by  patent,  dated  4th  August,  1646,  to  him  and 
his  males  heir  whatsoever.  He  was  fined  one  thousand  pounds 
by  Cromwell’s  act  of  grace  and  pardon,  1654.  The  minutes  of 
a contract  of  marriage  between  the  duchess  and  this  nobleman, 
with  consent  of  his  father,  the  marquis  of  Douglas,  dated  1656, 
are  still  preserved  among  the  Hamilton  Papers.^  After  the  Res- 
toration, in  consequence  of  a petition  from  the  duchess,  he  had, 
by  letters-patent,  on  the  20th  of  September,  1660,  superadded  to 
his  own  honors  the  title  and  precedency  of  the  duke  of  Hamil- 

* Anderson’s  Memoirs  of  the  House  of  Hamilton,  p.  150.  After  the  death  of  the 
duchess,  in  1716,  the  castle  of  Strathaven  was  allowed  to  fall  into  disrepair ; and,  as 
Chambers  says,  it  now  overhangs  the  town  of  Strathaven  with  its  shattered  and 
haggard  walls,  like  the  spirit  of  Fingal  represented  by  Ossian,  as  looking  down 
from  the  clouds  upon  his  living  descendants.” — Picture  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.,  p.  349. 

Though,  now  in  ruins,  the  castle  is  still  a beautiful  feature  in  our  landscape.” — New 
Statistical  Account  of  Scotland,  Lanarkshire,  Avondale. 

t Anderson’s  Memoirs  of  the  House  of  Hamilton,  p.  150. 

J Catalogue  of  the  Hamilton  Papers  in  the  Miscellany  of  the  Maitland  Club,  vol. 
iv-,  p.  202. 


DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


139 


ton,  and  other  titles,  in  right  of  his  wife,  on  whom  these  honors 
had  devolved.* 

As  might  naturally  be  expected,  the  duchess  hailed  the  resto- 
ration of  Charles  II.  with  satisfaction  and  joy ; for  it  put  her  in 
possession  of  her  father’s  estates  and  honors,  of  which  she  had 
been  deprived  by  Cromwell.  But  the  policy  of  the  government 
of  Charles  in  overthrowing  the  presbyterian  church  of  Scotland, 
and  in  ejecting  the  non-conforming  ministers  from  their  churches, 
she  contemplated  with  different  feelings.  This  measure  she 
perceived  to  be  at  once  unwise  in  principle,  and  destructive  in 
tendency.  The  duke,  her  husband,  at  a meeting  of  the  Scottish 
council,  held  at  London,  after  the  Restoration,  to  determine  as  to 
the  ecclesiastical  government  to  be  established  in  Scotland,  rea- 
soned against  the  setting  up  of  bishops. f He  also  opposed  in 
the  privy  council,  the  act  which  they  passed  at  Glasgow,  October 
1,  1662,  requiring  all  ministers  who  had  not  conformed  to  prelacy, 
to  desist  from  preaching,  and  to  withdraw  im.mediately  from  their 
parishes.  He  told  the  council  that  the  numerous  ministers  liable 
to  ejectment  were  highly  esteemed  and  beloved  by  their  people  ; 
and  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  find  a competent  number  of 
well  qualified  men  to  fill  their  places. j;  The  duchess  was  pre- 
cisely of  the  same  sentiments.  She  may  not  have  studied,  and 
Bishop  Burnet  informs  us  that  she  told  him  she  had  not  studied  the 
subject  of  church  government,  and  arrived  at  the  same  enlightened 
and  thorough  conviction  of  the  jus  dimnum  of  presbytery,  to  which 
she  had  arrived  on  other  points.  But  she  saw  that  the  ministers 
to  be  visited  by  ejectment  were  men  of  distinguished  piety,  of 
great  diligence  in  the  discharge  of  their  ministerial  duties,  and 
of  extensive  usefulness  in  promoting  religion  and  good  order 
among  the  people.  Not  to  speak,  then,  of  her  leaning  to  the 
side  of  the  presbyterian  faith,  which  is  manifest  from  her  ad- 
hering to,  and  favoring  it  during  her  whole  life,  through  evil 
report  as  well  as  good  report ; as  a woman  of  piety,  and  a friend 
of  public  order,  she  regretted  the  ejectment  of  such  men,  as  the 
infliction  of  a great  calamity  on  the  country. § 

The  duchess,  who  had  much  influence  upon  the  duke,  greatly 
contributed,  there  is  little  doubt,  to  infuse  into  his  mind  favorable 
feelings  toward  the  covenanters,  and  to  dispose  him  to  make  ex- 
ertions for  mitigating  the  oppressions  under  which  they  groaned. 

^ Catalogue  of  the  Hamilton  Papers  in  the  Miscellany  of  the  Maitland  Club,  vol 
iv.,  p.  172. 

t Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  390. 

t Burnet’s  History  of  His  Own  Times,  vol.  i,  p.  261.  § Ibid.,  p.  480. 


140 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


Such  feelings  he  entertained,  and  such  exertions  he  made. 
After  the  Restoration,  he  opposed,  as  we  have  seen,  the  setting 
up  of  bishops,  and  the  act  of  Glasgow,  by  which  some  hundreds 
of  ministers  were  ejected  from  their  charges.  During  the  per- 
secution he  often  acted  as  a drag  chain  upon  the  more  violent  of 
the  members  of  the  privy  council,  advocating  a moderate  and 
pacific  policy,  and  opposing  the  terrible  measures  which  were 
madly  adopted  against  religion  and  liberty  by  the  ruling  party. 
In  the  parliament  of  1673,  he  distinguished  himself  by  his  oppo- 
sition to  Lauderdale,  whose  rapacity,  tyranny,  and  oppression, 
were  become  intolerable,  demanding  that  the  state  of  the  nation 
should  be  examined,  and  its  grievances  Represented  to  the  king, 
before  the  supplies  were  granted.  On  repairing  to  court,  toward 
the  end  of  November,  1675,  he  earnestly  dealt  with  the  king  for 
a more  ample  indulgence  to  the  nonconforming  ministers,  by 
which  he  greatly  displeased  his  majesty,  who  told  him  he  had 
been  informed  of  his  too  great  kindness  to,  and  compliance  with, 
the  non-conformists  of  Scotland.*  In  1676,  he  was  removed 
from  his  place  in  the  privy  council  for  his  manly  and  spirited 
opposition  to  the  oppressive  sentence  of  the  council  against  the 
pious  and  patriotic  Baillie  of  Jerviswood,  who,  for  simply  rescu- 
ing his  brother-in-law,  Mr.  James  Kirkton,  from  Captain  Car- 
stairs,  was  fined  £500  sterling,  and  ordained  to  lie  in  prison  till 
the  fine  was  paid.f  He  was  also  prohibited  to  leave  Scotland, 
but,  notwithstanding  this  prohibition,  he  and  thirteen  others  went 
up  to  court  in  March,  1678,  to  complain  of  the  arbitrary  and  op- 
pressive administration  of  Lauderdale  in  regard  to  the  Highland 
host,  the  imposition  of  the  bond,  the  charging  them  with  law- 
borrows,  and  other  grievances  under  which  the  country  labored. 
On  the  breaking  out  of  the  insurrection  in  Scotland  in  May, 
1679,  he  and  the  other  Scottish  lords,  of  his  party,  then  in  Lon- 
don, offered — an  offer  which  was  rejected — to  restore  peace  to 
the  country  without  having  recourse  to  force  or  the  effusion  of 
blood,  provided  the  sufferings  of  the  people  were  alleviated.^ 
To  these  notices  other  facts  of  a similar  kind,  equally  favorable 
to  the  patriotism  and  humanity  of  the  duke  might  be  added. 
But  we  shall  only  further  state,  that  when  some  were  tortured  in 
1684,  in  reference  to  the  earl  of  Argyll’s  conspiracy,  he  opposed 
such  cruel  proceedings,  alleging  that,  at  this  rate,  they  might, 
without  accusers  or  witnesses,  take  any  person  off  the  street  and 

* Burnet'S  History  of  His  Own  Times,  vol.  i.,  p.  565.  Descriptive  Catalogue 
of  the  Hamilton  Papers  in  the  Miscellany  of  the  Maitland  Club,  vol.  iv.,  p.  178. 

t Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii.,  327.  | Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  i.,  p,  708. 


DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


141 


torture  him ; and  he  immediately  retired,  refusing  to  be  present, 
on  the  ground,  that  if  the  party  should  die  in  the  torture,  the 
judges  were  liable  for  murder,  or  at  least  severely  culpable.  * * * § 

Nor  was  the  duchess  of  Hamilton  alone,  among  the  ladies  of 
high  life,  in  moderating  the  persecution  by  the  influence  they 
exerted  over  those  most  nearly  related  to  them.  The  ladies  and 
other  female  relatives  of  several  others  of  the  members  of  his 
majesty’s  government  were  friendly  to  the  persecuted  cause  ; and 
by  their  influence,  as  well  as  by  the  deference  shown  to  their 
predilections,  individuals  were  often  exempted  from  the  hard- 
ships into  which  they  would  otherwise  have  been  brought,  while 
the  violence  of  the  persecution  was  sometimes  considerably  mit- 
igated. Of  this  class  were  the  first  wife  of  the  duke  of  Lauder- 
dale,! the  duchess  of  Rothes,^  both  the  first  and  the  second 
wives  of  the  earl  of  Argyll,^  the  countess  of  Dundonald,||  and 
others. 

After  the  Restoration,  Hamilton  palace,  which  is  situated  in  a 
valley  between  the  town  of  Hamilton  and  the  Clyde,  was  the 
chief  place  of  the  residence  of  the  duchess.  Since  the  time  she 
dwelt  in  that  princely  mansion,  its  aspect  has  very  much  changed. 
Great  additions,  in  the  best  architectural  style,  were  made  to  it 
in  the  year  1826,  and,  as  a whole,  it  is  now  considered  the  most 
magnificent  residence  in  Scotland,  being  extremely  splendid  in 
its  interior,  aud  having  a picture  gallery  peculiarly  rich  in  paint- 
ings, by  the  greatest  Italian  masters.  In  the  time  of  the  duchess, 
it  was  a large  building  of  moderate  external  elegance. 

The  town  of  Hamilton  being  in  the  vicinity  of  her  place  of 
residence,  she  at  all  times  made  the  welfare,  both  temporal  and 
spiritual,  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  town  and  parish,  the  object  of 
her  special  concern.  As  an  instance  of  her  desire  to  promote 

* Fountainhall’s  Notes,  p.  103.  See  also  Macaulay’s  History  of  England,  vol.  ii. , 
pp.  118,  119,  121,  122. 

t Lady  Anne  Home,  second  daughter  of  Alexander,  first  earl  of  Home.  She  was 
a great  means  of  softening  the  spirit  of  Lauderdale,  who  during  her  lifetime  was 
more  moderate  than  after  her  death.  From  Sir  George  Mackenzie’s  Memoirs  of 
Affairs  in  Scotland,  we  learn  that  she  promised  to  procure  indulgences  for  W elsh 
and  other  Presbyterian  ministers. — Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ih,  p.  244.  She  died  at 
Paris,  about  1671. 

t Lady  Anne  Lindsay,  daughter  of  the  earl  of  Crawford  and  Lindsay.  A notice 
of  this  lady  is  given  afterward. 

§ His  first  wife. was  Lady  Mary  Stuart,  eldest  daughter  of  James,  fifth  earl  of 
Moray.  She  died  in. May,  1668.  His  second  wife  was  Lady  Anne  M'Kenzie, 
second  daughter  of  Colin,  first  eaid  o.f  Seaforth,  and  relict  of  Alexander,  first  earl  of 
Belcarres.  A sketch  of  this  lady  is  also  given  afterward. 

II  This  lady  was  Euphemia,  daughter  of  Sir  William  Scot,  of  Ardross.  She  at- 
tended field  conventicles,  and  entertained  the  field  preachers  at  her  palace  at  Paisley. 
— Blackadder's  Memoirs  MS.  copy  in  Adv.  Library. 


142 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


their  spiritual  good,  as  well  as  of  her  pious  care  for  the  sanctity 
of  the  sabbath,  it  may  be  mentioned  that,  in  co-operation  with 
the  duke,  her  husband,  and  the  bailies  of  Hamilton,  she  obtained, 
in  1661,  an  act  of  parliament  changing  the  fairs  of  Hamilton 
from  Saturday  to  Thursday,  and  its  weekly  markets  from  Satur- 
day to  Friday.  The  reason  inducing  the  parties  to  apply  for 
this  act,  was,  as  is  stated  in  the  act  itself,  their  ‘‘  observing  the 
daily  inconveniences  arising  through  the  weekly  market  being 
upon  the  Saturday,  whereby  the  people  resorting  to  it  were  much 
occasioned  in  their  return  homeward  to  be  late  in  the  night,  and 
sometime  to  encroach  upon  the  Lord’s  day  next  ensuing,  and  so 
scandalous  to  God’s  worship  therein.”* 

To  her  zeal  for  the  temporal  good  of  the  town  of  Hamilton, 
ample  testimony  is  borne  by  the  town  council  records.  In  1668, 
Charles  11.  granted  a charter  to  her,  and  in  1670  the  magistrates 
then  in  office  accepted  a charter  from  her,  with  consent  of  her 
husband,  by  which  Hamilton  was  constituted  the  chief  burgh  of 
the  regality  and  dukedom  of  Hamilton.!  And  “ during  the  course 
of  her  long  life  she  was  a benefactor  to  the  town  of  Hamilton,  as 
she  endeavored  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  inhabitants, 
and  always  acted  strictly  in  conformity  to  the  charter.  Hence 
the  bailies  and  town  council  seem  at  all  times  to  have  looked  up 
to  her  with  a kind  of  filial  respect,  and  were  always  ready  to 
comply  with  her  requests,  which  indeed  were  never  incompatible 
with  the  interests  of  the  community.”! 

During  the  persecution  applications  were  often  made'to  her  to 
employ  her  interest  in  behalf  of  the  persecuted.  To  such  appli- 
cations she  always  listened  with  Christian  sympathy,  and  was 
ever  ready  to  do  all  in  her  power  to  afford  assistance  and  relief 
to  the  oppressed.  The  trials  she  had  passed  through  in  early 
life,  had  exerted  the  most  beneficial  influence  in  the  formation  of 
her  character.  The  loss  of  an  affectionate  and  beloved  father,  in 
circumstances  so  deeply  distressing,  and  the  death  of  an  endeared 
uncle,  also  in  painful  circumstances,  had  chastened  her  spirit  and 
strengthened  that  compassion  for  the  suffering,  and  that  benevo- 
lent interest  in  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  others  which  she 
exemplified  throughout  life. 

^ Acts  of  Scottish  parliament. 

t By  this  cbartei\the  family  of  Hamilton  has  the  right  of  appointing  the  town 
clerk,  and  of  electing  two  bailies  annually,  from  a list  of  six  names  chosen  by  the 
council  (but  including  the  bailies  o^the  former  year)  from  their  own  number.  The 
duke  and  duchess  elected  the  first  council,  but  the  right  of  electing  a new  council 
annually  in  future,  was  vested  for  ever  in  the  council  of  the  preceding  year.  In  the 
old  deeds,  the  duchess  is  styled  ‘‘high  and  mighty  princess." 

J Anderson’s  Memoirs  of  the  House  of  Hamilton,  pp.  488,  489. 


DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


143 


In  the  fate  of  the  youthful  Hugh  M‘Kail,  who  suffered  martyr- 
dom in  1666,  she  took  a particular  interest.  His  youth,  his 
amiable- dispositions,  his  eminent  piety,  and  his  promising  useful- 
ness as  a minister  of  the  gospel,  as  well  as  the  excellent  charac- 
ter of  his  father,  excited  her  compassion,  and  after  he  had  been 
tortured  and  indicted  to  stand  trial  for  treason  before  the  court  of 
justiciary,  she  sent  with  his  brother,  Mr.  Matthew,  ten  days 
before  his  trial  commenced,  a letter  to  the  duke  of  Rothes,  his 
majesty’s  high  commissioner,  earnestly  beseeching  him  to  do 
what  he  could  to  save  the  life  of  this  excellent  young  man. 
With  this  letter,  and  another  to  the  commissioner,  from  the  lady 
marchioness  of  Douglas,  her  mother-in-law,  his  brother  went,  on 
the  8th  of  December,  from  Edinburgh  to  Glasgow,  where  the 
commissioner  was  at  that  time  on  a visit.  What  effect  the  inter- 
cessions of  these  ladies  had  upon  the  duke,  or  whether  they 
moved  him  to  write  to  the  king  on  the  subject,  we  have  not  as- 
certained. His  majesty,  however,  not  long  after  this,  and  pre- 
vious to  the  execution  of  M‘Kail,  sent  down  a pardon  to  the 
prisoners  concerned  in  the  Pen-tland  rising,  who  were  not  exe- 
cuted, and  ordered  them  to  be  sent  to  Barbadoes.  But  the  par- 
don failed  of  taking  effect,  through  the  baseness  of  Archibald 
Sharp,  who,  besides  feeling  toward  the  Presbyterians  that  invet- 
erate malignity  which  has,  in  every  age,  been  characteristic  of 
apostates,  never  forgot  the  terms  in  which  he  fancied  M‘Kail 
had  spoken  concerning  him  in  a sermon.*  The  prelate  who 
had  been  biding  his  time  had  now  full  opportunity  given  him  of 
gratifying  his  mortal  hatred  and  revenge,  and  determined  that, 
whoever  was  spared,  M‘Kail  should  not  escape,  he  concealed 
the  king’s  pardon  till  M‘Kail  and  four  others  with  him  were  exe- 
cuted.! 

M‘Kail’s  sermon  referred  to  was  preached  from  the  Song  of  Solomon,  chapter 
i.,  verse  7.  The  passage  which  proved  so  offensive  'was  an  elegant  apostrophe,  in 
which  the  preacher  appealed  to  persecutors  of  past  ages,  whether  God  had  not 
proved  faithful  to  his  threatenings  against  persecutors,  as  well  as  to  his  promise  of 
deliverance  to  his  church  and  people.  “Let  Pharaoh,’’  said  he,  “ let  Haman,  let 
Judas,  let  Herod,  let  each  of  them  speak  from  experience  of  God’s  faithfulness  ! Let 
all,  then,  have  ears  to  hear,  and  hearing,  acknowledge  that  those  w'ho  have  made 
themselves  remarkable  for  persecution,  God  has  stigmatized  by  his  judgments.”  The 
malicious  gloss  which  the  party  then  in  power  put  upon  these  words  was,  that  the 
preacher  had  publicly  marked  out  and  threatened  or  stigmatized  the  king.  Commis- 
sioner Middleton,  Archbishop  Sharp,  and  the  duke  of  York,  the  king’s  brother,  under 
the  characters  of  Pharaoh,  Haman,  Judas,  and  Herod. — Coltness  Collections,  p.  47. 
Sharp  was  peculiarly  sensitive  to  the  slightest  allusion,  real  or  supposed,  to  the  sub- 
ject of  his  perfidy  and  apostasy  ; nor  did  he  fail,  when  he  found  opportunity,  to  re- 
venge himself  on  such  as  offended  him  on  this  score. 

t Naphtali,  p.  363.  M‘Crie’s  Memoirs  of  Veitch,  &c.,  p.  36.  Row’s  Life  of 
Robert  Blair,  p.  506. 


144 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT, 


Another  sufferer  on  whose  side  the  sympathies  of  the  duchess 
were  enlisted,  was  Mr.  James  Mitchell,  who  had  attempted  the 
assassination  of  Archbishop  Sharp.  It  can  not  be  supposed  that 
Mitchell’s  attempt,  which  was  condemned  by  the  great  body  of 
the  presbyterians,  was  approved  of  by  a lady  so  well  informed,  and 
so  opposed  to  all  extreme  courses,  as  was  the  duchess.  Still  the 
severity  with  which  he  was  treated  excited  commiseration  in 
many  who  condemned  his  rash  and  criminal  act ; and  after  he 
was  laid  in  prison,  some  of  this  class  of  the  presbyteris^ns  were 
very  active  in  endeavoring  to  obtain  his  liberation,  and  the  more 
especially  as  they  entertained  apprehensions  which,  as  was 
afterward  proved,  were  too  well  founded,  that  he  would  be 
brought  to  the  scaffold,  a punishment  for  his  offence,  in  their 
estimation,  unduly  severe.  Among  other  means,  one  of  them,  a 
lady,  applied  to  the  duchess,  when  she  passed  through  Edinburgh, 
in  November,  1675,  on  her  way  to  London,  requesting  her  to 
exert  her  influence  at  court  to  procure  his  liberty,  or  secure  his 
personal  safety.  She  received  the  application  with  much  cour- 
tesy, and  expressed  her  readiness  to  do  everything  in  her  power 
in  behalf  of  Mitchell,  who  had  then  been  imprisoned  for  nearly  two 
years.  Mr.  John  Carstairs,  in  a letter  to  Mr.  Robert  M‘Ward, 
dated  November  29,  1675,  speaking  on  this  subject,  says  : “ D. 
H.  [Duke  Hamilton]  passed  here  [Edinburgh]  with  his  lady  and 

eldest  daughter,  for  London,  Monday  last My  friend* 

spoke  to  her  [the  duchess]  about  our  friend  [Mitchell].  She 
was  very  civil,  and  told  her  there  needed  no  interposing,  if 
there  should  be  any  access  to  deal  for  that  person.”!  But  though 
Charles  had  considerable  respect  for  the  duchess,  and,  ungrateful 
though  he  was,  sometimes  expressed  to  her,  and  probably  in 
some  measure  felt  the  obligations  under  which  he  lay  to  her 
father  and  her  uncle,  who  had  sacrificed  their  lives  in  his  cause, 
yet,  at  this  time,  her  patronage  of  the  presbyterians  had  lowered 
her  in  the  scale  of  the  royal  favor ; and  her  intercessions  were 
besides  resisted,  and  again  rendered  ineffectual  by  Archbishop 
Sharp,  whose  vengeance  would  be  appeased  with  nothing  less 
than  the  blood  of  the  man  who  had  made  an  attempt  on  his 
life. 

In  1670,  when  Archbishop  Leighton  proposed  his  scheme  of 
accommodation  between  the  episcopalians  and  the  presbyterians, 
of  which,  among  all  his  party.  Dr.  Burnet  was  the  most  zealous 
supporter,  it  was  considered  highly  desirable  to  secure  the  me- 

* Might  not  this  be  Mrs.  James  Durham  ? 

t Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  lix.,  folio,  No.  38. 


DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


145 


dialing  influence  of  the  duchess  of  Hamilton,  in  consequence  of 
the  high  esteem  in  which  she  was  held  by  the  presbyterians^ 
and  the  great  weight  she  had  among  them.  Leighton  sent  to  the 
western  counties  six  of  the  most  popular  prelatic  ministers  he 
could  engage,  to  go  round  the  country  to  preach  in  vacant 
churches,  and  to  argue  in  support  of  the  accommodation  with 
such  as  should  come  to  hear  them.  Burnet,  the  most  eminent 
of  them,  on  his  services  being  secured,  went,  as  if  on  a visit  to 
the  duke  of  Hamilton,  but  in  reality  with  the  view  of  gaining 
over  the  duchess  to  the  plan,  and  of  prevailing  with  her  to  use 
her  influence  in  inducing  the  presbyterian  ministers  to  embrace 
it.  ‘‘  I was  desired,”  says  he,  to  go  into  the  western  parts,  and 
to  give  a true  account  of  matters,  as  I found  them  there.  So  I 
went  as  on  a visit  to  the  duke  of  Hamilton,  whose  duchess  was 
a woman  of  great  piety  and  great  parts.  She  had  much  credit 
among  them  [the  presbyterians]  ; for  she  passed  for  a zealous 
presbyterian,  though,”  he  adds,  “ she  protested  to  me  she  never 
entered  into  the  points  of  controversy,  and  had  no  settled  opinion 
about  forms  of  government ; only  she  thought  their  ministers 
were  good  men,  who  kept  the  country  in  great  quiet  and  order ; 
they  were,  she  said,  blameless  in  their  lives,  devout  in  their 
way,  and  diligent  in  their  labors.”* 

The  duchess  cordially  approved  of  the  plan  proposed  in  the 
accommodation  of  admitting  the  presbyterian  ministers  to  the 
vacant  churches.  “ The  people  were  all  in  a frenzy,”  says 
Burnet,  “ and  were  in  no  disposition  to  any  treaty.  The  furious- 
est  men  among  them  were  busy  in  conventicles,  inflaming  them 

* Burnet's  History  of  His  Own  Times,  vol.  i.,  pp.  480,  481,  508.  In  this,  .and  in 
the  subsequent  accounts  given  by  Burnet  of  what  the  duchess  said  in  reference  to 
the  presbyterian  ministers,  there  may,  without  questioning  his  veracity,  be  room 
for  thinking  that,  unintentionally,  no  doubt,  he  gives  to  her  speeches  a coloring  de- 
rived from  his  own  peculiar  leanings  and  sentiments,  just  as  we  every  day  see  the 
narration  of  facts  derive  a coloring  from  the  same  cause.  For.example,  we  have 
some  doubt  whether  the  duchess,  in  speaking  of  the  presbyterian  ministers,  would 
say,  in  these  precise  terras,  that  they  were  “ devout  in  their  way^'^  as  if  her  own 
personal  piety  was  of  a different  type  from  theirs  ; the  fact  being  that  it  was  similar 
in  character  to  that  of  the  strictest  of  the  covenanters — to  that  of  such  men  as  Dur- 
ham. Binning,  and  the  Guthries— and  that  her  views  of  doctrine,  like  theirs,  were 
strictly  Calvinislic.  Such  were  the  piety  and  religious  sentiments  of  her  uncle, 
Duke  William,  from  whom  she  derived  much  religious  instruction  and  spiritual 
profit,  and  such  were  the  piety  and  religious  sentiments  of  her  daughter,  Catherine, 
duchess  of  Athpll,  who  was  educated  under  her  own  eye.  Indeed  it  appears  that 
it  was  her  personal  piety  and  her  Calvinistic  views  of  doctrine,  more  than  any  set- 
tled opinion  she  had  as  to  church  government,  which  caused  her  decided  preference 
of  the  preaching  of  the  ejected  ministers.  The  probability  then  is,  that  she  simply 
said  that  they  were  devout,  and  that  Burnet,  influenced  in  his  ideas  of  personal 
piety  by  his  Arminian  sentiments,  unconsciously  represented  her  as  saying  that  they 
were  “ devout  in  their  way,'' 


13 


146 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


against  all  agreements  : so  she  thought  that  if  the  more  moderate 
presbyterians  were  put  in  vacant  churches,  the  people  would 
grow  tamer,  and  be  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the  mad  preachers 
that  were  then  most  in  vogue  : this,”  she  added,  “ would  likewise 
create  confidence  in  them  in  the  government ; for  they  were  now 
so  possessed  with  prejudice  as  to  believe  that  all  that  was  pro- 
posed was  only  an  artifice,  to  make  them  fall  out  among  them- 
selves, and  deceive  them  at  last.”*  She  got  many  of  the  more 
moderate  of  the  presbyterian  ministers  to  come  to  Burnet,  and 
they  all  talked  in  a similar  strain. 

From  the  manner  in  which  the  terms  of  the  accommodation 
were  represented  to  her  by  Burnet,  and  from  her  not  having 
closely  turned  her  attention  to  the  study  of  church  government, 
she  did  not,  however,  perceive  that  the  scheme,  being  at  variance 
with  presbyterian  principles,  would  have  ultimately  secured  the 
triumph  of  prelacy,  and  could  not,  therefore,  be  conscientiously 
accepted  by  the  presbyterians.  Even  after  the  presbyterian 
ministers  had  held  meetings  on  the  subject,  and  had  rejected  the 
proposed  measure  as  inconsistent  with  their  principles,  she  en- 
deavored to  prevail  with  them  to  embrace  it.  She  “ sent  for 
some  of  them,  [and  for]  Hutchinson  in  particular.  She  said  she 
did  not  pretend  to  understand  nice  distinctions,  and  the  terms  of 
dispute  : here  was  plain  sense  : the  country  might  be  again  at 
quiet,  and  the  rest  of  those  that  were  outed  admitted  to  churches 
on  terms  that  seemed  to  all  reasonable  men  very  easy ; their 
rejecting  this  would  give  a very  bad  character  of  them,  and  would 
have  very  bad  effects,  of  which  they  might  see  cause  to  repent 
when  it  would  be  too  late.”t  But,  fortunately,  the  advice  of  the 
duchess,  which  was,  in  fact,  though  she  might  not  perceive  it,  to 
advise  them  to  give  up  without  a struggle  the  cause  for  which 
they  had  all  suffered,  and  for  which  not  a few  of  their  country- 
men had  already  sacrificed  their  lives,  was  not  complied  with, 
and  thus  the  presbyterian  ministers  proved  true  to  their  own 
consistency,  and  to  the  cause  which  they  had  vowed  to  defend. 
After  conversing  with  Hutchinson,  and  urging  upon  his  attention 
the  considerations  already  mentioned,  she  found  that  there  was 
no  chance  of  the  scheme  being  accepted,  and  told  Burnet  that  all 
she  could  draw  from  him  was,  that  he  saw  the  generality  of  his 
brethren  were  resolved  not  to  enter  into  it ; that  it  would  prove  a 
bone  of  contention,  and  instead  of  healing  old  breaches,  would 
create  new  ones.J  Thus  the  whole  negotiation  about  the  accom- 

Burnet’s  History  of  His  Own  Times,  vol.  i.,  p.  481.  t Ibid.,  p.  511. 

t Ibid. 


THE  DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


147 


modation  ended  in  nothing.  There  is,  however,  no  doubt  that 
the  great  anxiety  of  the  duchess  to  get  the  presbyterians  to  em- 
brace the  accommodation,  proceeded  from  her  sincere  desire  to 
see  them  delivered  from  the  tyranny  and  oppression  under  which 
they  had  so  long  groaned. 

In  testimony  of  the  same  amiable  features  of  her  character, 
the  following  passage  from  a letter  written  by  Mr.  John  Carstairs 
to  Mr.  Robert  M‘VVard,  November  29,  1675,  may  be  quoted  : 
‘‘  Things,”  says  he,  “ have  still  a sad  aspect  on  us,  and  that  dis- 
appointing parliament  being  prorogued,  it’s  like  we  shall  tyran- 
nize it  here  at  the  old  rate.  D.  H.  [Duke  Hamilton]  went  here, 
with  his  lady  and  eldest  daughter,  for  London,  Monday  last,  not 
sent  for  by  the  king,  but  it’s  like  to  see  what  he  could  do  for  the 
advocates.  His  lady  told  a person  of  honor,  as  I heard,  that  it 
should  be  seen  that  they  went  upon  no  account  of  their  own,  but 
for  the  good  of  the  country,  and  of  religion,  though  without  all 
hope  of  coming  speed  as  to  anything,  and  desired  that  friends 
might  remember  them.”*  The  duke,  on  this  visit  to  the  court, 
urged  upon  the  king,  as  we  have  seen  before,  the  granting  of  a 
larger  indulgence  as  the  most  effectual  means  of  quieting  the 
country ; a proposal  with  which  his  majesty,  guided  by  his  infa- 
mous adviser,  Lauderdale,  refused  to  comply,  taunting  the  duke 
as  a favorer  of  nonconformists. 

One  thing  which  recommended  Burnet  to  the  duchess,  besides 
his  talents,  was  his  tolerant  sentiments  in  regard  to  matters  of 
religion  ;t  for  although  connected  with  the  prelatic  church,  and 
from  principle  a supporter  of  prelacy,  his  temper  was  moderate, 

* Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  lix.,  folio,  No.  38. 

t So  high  was  the  opinion  she  formed  of  the  talents  and  moderation  of  Burnet, 
that  she  engaged  him  to  undertake  the  task  of  compiling  memoirs  of  her  father  and 
uncle,  from  the  many  papers  in  her  possession  relating  both  to  their  public  conduct, 
and  to  their  personal  character.  These  papers  she  had  carefully  preserved,  her  un- 
cle William  having  charged  her  to  keep  them  with  the  same  care  as  she  kept  the 
writings  of  her  estate,  as  they  w'ould  be  found  to  contain  a full  justification  of  her 
fathers  as  well  as  his  own  public  actings  ; and  desirous  to  vindicate  the  memory 
of  these  beloved  relatives,  who,  notwithstanding  the  errors  of  their  political  lives, 
possessed  many  e.stimable  qualities,  she  put  all  these  documents  into  Burnet’s  hands. 
“ This,”  says  he,  was  a very  great  trust,  and  1 made  no  ill  use  of  it.  I found  there 
materials  for  a very  large  history.  I wrote  it  with  great  sincerity,  and  concealed 
none  of  their  errors.  1 did,  indeed,  conceal  several  things  that  related  to  the  king. 
I left  out  .some  passages  that  were  in  his  letters,  in  some  of  which  was  too  much 
weakness,  and  in  others  too  much  craft  and  anger.”  (Burnet’s  History  of  his  Own 
Times,  vol.  i.,  p.  516.)  The  work  was  printed  at  London,  in  1677,  and  the  Epistle 
Dedicatory,  which  is  addressed  to  the  king,  is  dated  London,  21st  October,  1673. 
It  brings  out  the  character  of  the  duchess’s  father  in  a much  more  favorable  light 
than  Clarendon  brings  it  out  in  his  History  of  the  Rebellion,  but  that  history,  which 
was  not  published  for  many  years  after  iis  author’s  death,  has,  not  without  ground, 
been  suspected  of  having  been  corrupted  by  the  Oxford  gentlemen  who  pub- 
lished it.  See  Appendix,  No.  V. 


148 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


and,  like  Leighton,  he  was  an  enemy  to  persecution.  In  the 
family  of  Hamilton  the  suiferings  of  the  presbyferians,  for  adhe- 
ring to  their  covenant,  were  not  imfrequently  the  subject  of  con- 
versation ; and,  when  present  on  such  occasions,  Burnet  was 
accustomed  to  speak  in  terms  of  high  respect  of  several  of  the 
ejected  ministers  and  sufferers,  as  well  as  of  commiseration  for 
them,  and  even  expressed  so  high  an  opinion  of  the  national  cov- 
enant which  abjured  popery,  as  to  affirm  it  to  be  his  conviction, 
that  it  would  never  be  well  with  Scotland  until  it  was  renewed. 
This  spirit,  so  very  different  from  that  which  animated  the  great 
body  of  the  prelatic  clergy,  was  highly  gratifying  to  her  grace, 
with  whose  feelings  and  sentiments  it  so  closely  harmonized.* 

Though  the  duchess  may  not  have  desisted  from  hearing  the 
curates  of  Hamilton,  the  parish  in  which  she  usually  resided — 
for  on  the  subject  of  hearing  the  curates  the  presbyterians  were 
divided  in  sentiment,  and  she  confessedly  belonged  to  the  less 
rigid  portion  of  the  body — yet  she  frequented  the  ministrations 
of  the  ejected  ministers,  taking  her  children  along  with  her  ; and 
she  was  in  the  habit  of  attending  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord’s 
supper  as  administered  by  them,  in  various  parts  of  the  country. 
When  Mr.  William  Violant  became  indulged  minister  at  Cambus- 
nethan,  the  Lord’s  supper  was  frequently  administered  in  that 
place,  and  was  resorted  to  by  people  from  all  quarters.  Among 
others,  the  duchess  regularly  went  over  to  observe  the  ordi- 
nance, and,  on  such  occasions,  it  was  her  practice  to  reside  at 
Coltness,  in  the  family  of  Sir  Thomas  Stewart,  who  was  himself 
a man  of  sincere  piety,  and  whose  lady  was  distinguished,  in 
no  ordinary  degree,  for  her  Christian  virtues  and  graces. f 

In  attending  the  indulged  ministers,  she  was  keeping  within 
the  strict  limits  of  law ; but,  breaking  through  the  fences  of  the 
law,  she  sometimes  also  countenanced  conventicles  with  her 
presence.  This  was  one  main  reason  of  the  strong  opposition 
which  her  husband,  the  duke,  made  to  the  bond,  which,  by  an 
act  of  privy  council,  August  2,  1677,  all  heritors,  wood-setters, 
and  life-renters,  were  required  to  subscribe,  engaging  that  neither 
they  themselves,  their  wives,  their  children,  their  servants,  nor 
their  tenants,  should  assemble  at  conventicles,  or  afford  encour- 
agement and  protection  to  those  who  frequented  them,  or  employ 
any  outed  minister  in  baptizing  their  children,  and  that  under  the 
highest  penalties  appointed  by  former  laws,  which  are  repeated 
in  the  proclamation.  After  recording  the  alarm  which  this  bond 

* Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  ii.,  p.  282  : and  his  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  271. 

t Coltness  Collections,  p.  68. 


DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


149 


created  in  the  west,  and  giving  an  account  of  a meeting  of  noble- 
men, gentlemen,  and  heritors,  in  the  shire  of  Ayr,  against  it,  pre- 
sided over  by  the  earl  of  Loudon,  Kirkton  adds  : “ The  bond 
found  no  better  reception  in  Clydesdale,  where  there  was  a great 
meeting  of  heritors  at  Hamilton  ; and  the  duke  of  Hamilton  being 
at  this  time  highly  displeased  with  the  proceedings  of  the  coun- 
cil, and  a great  enemy  to  the  bond,  knowing  well  that  he  could 
not  answer  for  his  own  family,  the  bond  was  rejected  even  by 
those  who  were  of  no  principle,  but  to  save  their  estate.”* 

This  opposition,  however,  proved  unavailing.  It  raised  Lau- 
derdale’s fury  to  such  a pitch  that,  at  the  council  table,  he  made 
made  bare  his  arm  above  his  elbow,  and  swore  by  Jehovah  he 
would  make  the  refractory  landholders  enter  into  it.  For  the 
purpose  of  coercing  them  he  brought  down  upon  the  west  of  Scot- 
land, in  1678,  a host  of  rapacious  highlanders,  to  the  number  of 
not  less  than  ten  thousand.!  Another  species  of  oppression  to 
which  the  gentlemen  who  refused  to  subscribe  the  bond  were 
subjected,  was  the  serving  upon  them  a writ  of  lawborrows.  The 
term  lawborrows  is  from  burgh  or  borrow ^ an  old  Scotch  word  for 
caution  or  surety^  and  means  security  given  to  do  nothing  con- 
trary to  law.  The  import  of  a lawborrows  in  Scotland  is,  that 
when  two  neighbors  are  at  such  variance  that  the  one  dreads  bod- 
ily harm  from  the  other,  he  procures  from  the  justiciary  (former- 
ly from  the  council),  or  any  other  judges  competent,  letters  char- 
ging the  other  to  find  caution  or  security  that  the  complainer,  his 
wife,  bairns,  &;c.,  shall  be  scatheless  from  the  person  complained 
of,  his  wife,  bairns,  &c.,  in  their  body,  lands,  heritages,  &c. ; but 
before  such  letters  can  be  granted,  the  complainer  must  give  his 
oath  that  he  dreads  bodily  harm,  trouble,  or  molestation  from  the 
person  against  whom  he  complains.  The  propriety  of  magistrates 
issuing  such  a writ  in  the  case  of  private  individuals  may  be  ad- 
mitted ; but  its  being  issued  at  the  suit  of  the  sovereign  against 
his  subjects,  simply  on  account  of  their  refusing  an  unreasonable 
bond,  was  the  height  of  oppression. J 

Yet,  under  the  operation  of  this  writ,  the  duchess  of  Hamilton 
was  threatened  to  be  brought ; and  had  Lauderdale  succeeded  in 
his  wishes,  she  would  have  been  subjected  to  its  restraints  and 
penalties  ; for  the  duke  of  Hamilton  had  intimation  sent  him  that 
it  was  designed  to  serve  it  upon  him;|l  in  other  words,  that  he 

Ki'kton’s  History,  pp.  377,  378. 

t Burnet,  in  his  “ Own  Times,"  says  eight  thousand  (vol.  ii,,  p.  134).  Crook- 
shank,  in  his  History,  more  correctly  makes  them  ten  thousand  (vol.  ii.,  p.  428). 
t Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  401,  403.  Crookshank’s  History,  vol.  i.,  p.  434. 
II  Burnet’s  Histoiy  of  his  Own  Times,  vol.  ii.,  p.  135. 

13* 


150 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


was  to  be  obliged,  according  to  the  tenor  of  the  act  for  serving 
lawborrows  on  the  refusers  of  the  bond,  to  enact  himself  in  the 
books  of  the  privy  council,  that  he  himself,  the  duchess,  their 
children  and  their  tenants,  should  keep  his  majesty’s  peace,  and 
particularly  that  they  should  not  go  to  field  conventicles,  nor 
harbor,  nor  commune  with  rebels  or  persons  intercommuned, 
and  that  under  the  penalty  of  the  double  of  his  yearly  valued 
rent,  or  such  other  penalties  as  should  be  thought  convenient  by 
the  lords  of  the  privy  council  or  their  committee.*  Lauderdale, 
however,  was  compelled  to  abandon  his  intentions.  The  ravages 
of  the  highland  host,  and  the  enactment  in  reference  to  lawbor- 
rows, ‘‘  which  looked  like  French  or  rather  like  Turkish  govern- 
ment,” created  universal  indignation.  The  duke  of  Hamilton, 
and  ten  or  twelve  of  the  nobility,  with  about  fifty  gentlemen  of 
quality,  went  up  to  London  to  complain,  and  the  storm  of  oppo- 
sition became  so  violent  that  Lauderdale  was  glad  to  recall  the 
highland  host,  and  suspend  the  execution  of  writs  of  lawborrows.  j 
Residing  almost  constantly  at  the  palace  of  Hamilton,  the 
duchess  had  full  opportunity  of  learning  the  state  of  affairs  in  the 
district ; and  she  entered  much  into  the  feelings  of  the  people  in 
the  distressing  and  turbulent  times  in  which  she  lived.  She  es- 
peciall)y;ook  a great  interest  in  the  welfare  and  comfort  of  her 
tenantry,  and  when,  like  others,  they  were  exposed  to  persecution 
and  lawless  violence,  she  was  always  prepared,  according  to  her 
ability,  to  throw  the  shield  of  protection  over  them.  In  proof  of 
this,  we  may  refer  to  the  manner  in  which  she  acted  when,  in 
1678,  the  highland  host,  now  adverted  to,  was  let  loose,  like  an 
army  of  locusts,  to  lay  waste  the  western  parts  of  the  country. 
The  injury  done  by  the  host  to  her  tenantry  was  considerable, 
though  perhaps  less  than  that  suffered  by  many  others.  In  the 
parish  of  Strathaven,  of  which  she  was  chief  proprietor,  by  an 
account  taken  up  a considerable  number  of  years  after  the  revo- 
lution, from  such  sufferers  as  were  then  alive,  there  was  lost,  by 
free  quarters  and  other  extortions,  the  sum  of  jC1700  12^. ; and” 
as  Wodrow  remarks,  “ we  may,  without  any  stretch,  double  it, 
considering  that  many  were  dead  in  thirty  years  and  more,  after 
the  highland  host  were  among  them.”  In  the  small  parish  of 
Cambuslang,  one  tenant  had  fifty  highlanders  of  Atholl’s  men, 
with  a lieutenant  and  quartermaster,  quartered  on  him  for  eight 
days  ; another  had  sixteen  quartered  on  him,  also  for  eight  days  ; 
and  other  three  had  each  twenty- two  quartered  on  him  during 

* Wodrow ’s  History,  vol.  ii,.  p.  401. 

t Buroet’s  History  of  his  Own  Times,  vol.  ii,  p.  135. 


DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON.  151 

the  same  period.  In  the  return  of  the  host  from  the  more  west- 
ern parts,  one  Lieutenant  Stewart,  and  Quartermaster  Leckie, 
came  to  that  parish  with  eighteen  men,  continuing  five  weeks  in  it 
during  seed-time  ; and  they  told  the  parish  that  they  had  orders 
to  quarter  eighty  men,  though  they  never  showed  their  order. 
No  more  than  eighteen  of  their  men  ever  came,  but  they  exacted 
from  the  parish  money  equivalent  to  free  quarters  for  eighty, 
which  amounted  to  jC861,  and  whoever  refused  to  pay  had  their 
houses  rifled,  and  were  forced  to  buy  back  their  goods  at  a much 
larger  sum  than  the  sum  for  quarters  would  have  amounted  to. 
The  tenantry  in  Hamilton  parish  were  also  sufferers  from  the 
same  cause. 

Indignant  at  these  oppressions  and  hardships  to  which  her 
tenants  were  subjected,  the  duchess  instantly  complained,  and 
adopted  measures  for  obtaining  redress.  Upon  the  5th  of  April, 
she  took  an  instrument  against  the  earl  of  Strathmore,  insisting 
for  the  restoration  of  what  had  been  illegally  exacted  from  her 
tenants,  in  the  parish  of  Hamilton,  by  his  soldiers.  This  instru- 
ment bears,  that  on  the  5th  of  April,  in  presence  of  a public  notary 
and  witnesses,  John  Baillie,  her  chamberlain,  went  to  Patrick, 
earl  of  Strathmore,  who  was  for  the  time  in  the  dwelling-house 
of  William  Hamilton,  maltman,  burgess  of  Hamilton,  and  there, 
in  her  name  and  behalf,  showed  the  earl  that  neither  she  nor 
William  duke  of  Hamilton,  her  husband,  had  ever  seen  any  orders 
allowing  any  officers  or  soldiers  in  any  troops  or  regiments  for 
the  time  within  the  shire  Lanark,  to  have  free  quarters  upon  any 
person  or  persons  of  whatever  class  : and  that,  notwithstanding 
thereof,  a considerable  part  of  the  regiment  of  foot,  under  the 
command  of  the  earl,  sometimes  more  and  sometimes  fewer,  had 
quartered  upon  her  lands  and  property,  within  the  parish  of 
Hamilton,  from  the  16th  day  of  March  last  bypast  to  this  present 
day  inclusive,  without  payment  of  any  sums  of  money : as  also, 
that  the  said  soldiers  had  exacted  diverse  sums  of  money,  or  dry 
quarters  (as  they  termed  these  exactions),  from  several  of  her 
tenants,  and  that  over  and  above  the  entertainment  of  meat,  drink, 
and  bedding,  they  had  in  the  places  where  they  were  quartered. 
For  this  reason,  and  in  respect  no  order  had  been  shown  for  free 
quarters,  or  levying  of  money,  over  and  above  the  same,  Mr. 
Baillie,  in  name  and  behalf,  and  at  command  of  the  duchess, 
desired  the  earl  either  to  pay,  or  cause  payment  to  be  made,  to 
her  respective  tenants,  for  the  quarters  his  soldiers  had  upon  her 
said  tenants  during  the  period  of  time  above  written ; and  also 
that  the  said  tenants  might  be  reimbursed  of  all  exactions  made 


152 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


by  his  soldiers  from  them.  To  this  it  was  answered  by  the  earl, 
that  the  bringing  such  of  his  regiment  into  Hamilton  parish  was 
at  the  command  of  his  majesty’s  privy  council,  founded  upon  his 
majesty’s  warrant ; that  the  way  in  which  he  had  quartered  them 
was  conformably  to  orders  from  the  major-general ; that  he  had 
never  commanded  or  allowed  any  exactions  of  any  kind  besides 
their  quarters  ; and  that  such  other  exactions  (if  any  were  made), 
were  expressly  contrary  to  his  orders.  Upon  which,  this  answer 
being  judged  unsatisfactory,  Mr.  Baillie,  in  name  and  at  command 
of  the  duchess,  as  also  the  earl  of  Strathmore,  took  instruments 
in  the  hands  of  a notary.^  Whether  these  tenants  were  reim- 
bursed for  their  losses  does  not  appear.  The  probability  is  that 
they  were  not,  but  the  representations  made  by  the  duchess,  the 
duke  and  others  in  reference  to  the  proceedings  of  the  highland 
host  so  far  succeeded,  that  these  savages,  after  having  ravaged 
the  country  for  two  months,  were  recalled. 

The  duchess  was  residing  at  Hamilton  palace  when  the  cove- 
nanters, and  the  king’s  troops,  under  the  command  of  the  duke 
of  Monmouth,  fought  at  Bothwell  bridge,  on  sabbath  the  22d  of 
June,  1679.  The  result  of  this  unfortunate  engagement  is  well 
known.  The  covenanters  were  defeated  and  put  to  flight.  Few 
of  them  were  slain  in  the  encounter,  but  some  hundreds  were 
slaughtered  in  the  most  barbarous  manner  in  the  neighboring 
fields,  whither  they  had  fled.  A great  number  of  them  sought 
for  concealment  in  the  wooded  parks  around  Hamilton  palace  ; 
and  here  they  found  effectual  shelter ; for  the  humane  duchess, 
on  being  informed  that  many  of  the  insurgents  who  had  been 
defeated  were  lurking  in  her  policies,  and  that  the  royal  army 
was  pursuing  them,  sent  a message  to  the  duke  of  Monmouth, 
desiring  that  he  would  prevent  his  soldiers  from  trespassing  upon 
her  grounds.  With  this  request  Monmouth,  whose  humanity  in 
restraining  the  soldiers  is  deserving  of  commendation,  instantly 
complied  by  giving  orders  to  that  effect ; and  thus  none  of  the 
fugitives  who  had  taken  refuge  in  her  plantations  were  farther 
molested.! 

In  addition  to  her  humanity,  the  duchess  possessed  a nice 
sense  of  the  honorable  and  just  in  spirit  and  in  conduct.  And  as 
by  such  principles  she  herself  was  uniformly  regulated,  it  afforded 
her  much  satisfaction  to  meet  with  them  in  others.  Of  this  we 
have  a fine  illustration  in  an  interesting  correspondence  which 

* Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  430. 

t Chambers’s  Picture  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.,  p.  357.  New  Statistical  Account  of  Scot- 
land, Hamilton,  Lanarkshire,  p.  266. 


DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


153 


took  place  in  1687,  between  her  and  Thomas  Rokeby,  son  of 
Major  Rokeby,  for  whose  use  part  of  the  estate  of  Hamilton  had 
been  sold  in  Cromwell’s  time.  This  gentleman  writes  to  her, 
informing  her  that  he  was  the  ninth  son  of  Major  Rokeby ; that 
after  much  reflection  with  himself,  he  had  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  Cromwell  had  no  power  to  give  away  what  was  not  his 
own  ; that  by  his  father’s  death,  a tenth  part  of  the  price  (two  hun- 
dred and  twenty-flve  pounds  sterling)  had  come  to  him  when  a 
boy,  which  was  the  only  part  he  had  in  the  injury ; and  that,  hav- 
ing suffered  many  hard  conflicts  with  himself  on  that  account,  he 
had  resolved  to  make  restitution,  as  the  first  step  to  forgiveness, 
first  from  God,  and  then  from  her  grace.  He  wrote  to  her  five 
letters  on  the  subject.  With  these  communications  the  duchess 
was  much  gratified,  not  indeed  because  she  attached  any  impor- 
tance to  the  amount  of  his  share  of  her  spoils  which  he  was  so 
anxious  to  restore,  but  because  of  the  indication  they  gave  of  a 
high  sense  of  honor  and  a scrupulous  regard  to  justice,  which,  in 
such  matters,  is  not  very  common,  and  of  which  she  probably 
never  met,  during  her  long  life,  with  a similar  instance.  In  her 
answers  to  his  letters,  she  says  little  about  the  money,  telling  him 
that  the  duke  took  care  of  that ; but  she  expresses  her  admiration 
at  his  conduct,  “ falling  almost  before  him  as  a votary,”  and  ear- 
nestly desires  an  interest  in  the  prayers  of  a person  endowed  in 
her  estimation  with  such  superior  excellence  of  character.  These 
letters  are  preserved  among  the  state  papers  and  other  documents 
in  the  palace  of  Hamilton  ; and  Mr.  George  Chalmers,  the  well- 
known  author  of  Caledonia,”  who  had  read  them,  says,  “ The 
beautiful  simplicity  that  runs  through  this  correspondence  can 
not  be  seen  but  in  the  letters  themselves.’’* 

Of  the  revolution  which  took  place  in  1688,  the  duchess  was 
a warm  friend,  both  because  it  delivered  these  nations  from  tyr- 
anny and  popery,  and  restored  the  presbyterian  church  of  Scot- 
land to  her  rights  and  liberties.  Lockhart  styles  her  a stanch 
presbyterian,  and  hearty  revolutioner.”!  Her  zeal  in  the  cause 
of  the  church  was  well  known  to  King  William,  who  delicately 
jested  her  on  the  subject;  as  we  learn  from  the  following  anec- 
dote, recorded  by  Wodrow.  Writing,  October  3,  1710,  he  says  : 

I hear  that  a little  after  the  revolution,  when  this  present  duch- 
ess of  Hamilton  was  coming  down  from  court,  and  had  taken  her 
leave  of  the  queen,  and  took  leave  of  King  William,  he,  smiling, 

* Descriptive  Catalogue  of  the  Hamilton  Papers  in  the  Miscellany  of  the  Maitland 
Club,  vol.  iv , pp.  183,  184. 

t Lockhart’s  Papers,  vol.  i.,  p.  602. 


154 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


said,  ‘ You  are  going  down  to  take  care  of  the  kirk.’ — ‘ Yes,  sir,’ 
she  replied,  ‘ I own  myself  a presbyterian,’  and  offered  to  kneel 
to  kiss  his  hand.  The  king  presently  supported  her,  and,  as  I 
think,  did  not  suffer  her  to  kneel,  but  said,  ‘ Madam,  I am  like- 
wise a presbyterian.’  This  I have  from  one  that  was  witness  to 
it,  and  another  good  hand  that  had  it  from  the  duchess.”* 

The  duke,  her  husband,  was  also  a zealous  supporter  of  the 
revolution  government ; but  her  son,  the  earl  of  Arran,  devotedly 
adhered  to  James  VII.  He  had  been  much  courted  by  that  mon- 
arch, who  had  conferred  upon  him  various  lucrative  and  honora- 
ble situations,  such  as  the  office  of  his  majesty’s  lieutenant  and 
sheriff  in  the  shires  of  West  Lothian,  Lanark,  Renfrew,  and 
Dumbarton  ; the  office  of  groom  of  the  stole,  and  first  gentleman 
of  the  bedchamber ; the  office  of  colonel  of  a royal  regiment  of 
horse,  and  of  brigadier-general  of  all  the  horse  ; as  well  as  the 
honor  of  a knight  of  the  thistle.f  Gained  by  these  marks  of 
royal  favor,  he  supported  James  in  opposition  to  the  government 
of  William ; and,  having  been  engaged  in  a plot  for  the  restora- 
tion of  James,  he  was  twice  committed  prisoner  to  the  Tower  o 
London,  where  he  remained  for  many  months,  but  was  at  length 
discharged  without  prosecution.  While  he  lay  in  prison,  the 
duchess,  though  disapproving  of  his  conduct,  naturally  felt  for 
her  son,  and  wrote  to  the  earl  of  Melville,  interceding  in  his  be- 
half, as  she  had  often  before  interceded  with  men  in  high  places, 
in  behalf  of  those  who  had  suffered  in  a better  cause.  The  let- 
ter is  as  follows  : — 

“ My  Lord  : The  receipt  of  yours  of  the  4th  was  a great  sur- 
prise to  me,  to  find,  after  so  long  a delay  of  that  affair  I com- 
mended so  earnestly  to  your  lordship,  that  there  is  so  little  done 
in  it.  I doubt  not,  but  as  you  write,  and  as  I am  otherwise  in- 
formed, the  stop  has  not  lain  at  your  door,  though  there  are  who 
say  it  has,  but  I wish  it  were  made  evident  who  have  been  the  ob- 
structors. I hope  my  son’s  peaceable  behavior  all  this  time  will 
render  his  circumstances  something  more  favorable  than  [those 
of]  some  others  ; and,  when  his  majesty  considers  the  service 
his  father  has  done,  will  move  him  to  renew  the  same  favor  he 
granted  before  to  my  son,  his  liberty  on  bail,  which  will  be  re- 
ceived as  a great  favor  to  all  concerned ; and  if  the  ill  condition 
of  his  health  were  known,  it  would  plead  compassion  for  him. 

Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  i.,  p.  304. 

t Descriptive  Catalogue  of  the  Hamilton  Papers  in  the  Miscellany  of  the  Maitland 
Club,  vol.  iv.,  p.  183. 


DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


155 


But  I have  not  time  to  add  more,  but  my  lord’s  humble  service  to 
you,  and  that  I am,  my  lord,  your  lordship’s  most  humble  servant, 

“ Hamilton. 

“ Holyrood  house,  19th  December,  1690.”* 

In  the  year  1706,  when  the  question  of  the  union  of  the  king- 
doms of  Scotland  and  England  was  so  keenly  agitated,  the  duch- 
ess was  a very  zealous  opponent  of  the  measure.  The  union 
was  indeed  in  the  highest  degree  unpopular  among  all  parties. 
The  cavaliers  or  Jacobites,  perceiving  that  it  would  destroy  all 
hopes  of  the  restoration  of  the  pretender,  violently  obstructed  it 
in  every  stage  of  its  progress.  The  presbyterians,  too,  whose 
opposition  v/as  much  more  formidable,  opposed  it,  though  from 
very  different  views,  dreading  that  the  consequence  would  be 
the  supplanting  of  their  favorite  presbyterian  church  government, 
by  the  prelatic*  form  established  in  England  ; and  so  strong  was 
this  apprehension,  that  it  could  not  be  removed  by  all  the  offers 
made  of  security  to  the  established  presbyterian  church.  Burnet, 
who  was  then  bishop  of  Salisbury,  and  a great  courtier,  says  that 
these  fears  were  “ infused  in  them  chiefly  by  the  old  duchess  of 
Hamilton,  who  had  great  credit  with  them.”t  But  this  is  per- 
haps ascribing  to  her  grace  a larger  amount  of  weight  in  the 
church  of  Scotland  than  (notwithstanding  the  great  respect  en- 
tertained for  her)  she  actually  possessed.  Altogether  indepen- 
dent of  her  opinion  or  influence,  the  intrinsic  importance  of  the 
question  itself  roused  the  attention  of  the  presbyterians  ; and  they 
considered  that  good  affection  and  zeal  for  the  just  rights  and 
liberties,  both  of  the  nation  and  of  the  presbyterian  government 
of  the  church  of  Scotland,  as  then  by  law  established,  bound  them 
to  oppose  the  union.  The  duchess,  however,  did  all  in  her  power 
to  prevail  on  her  friends  to  set  themselves  against  it.  Among 
the  “ Hamilton  Papers”  there  are  still  preserved  several  letters 
she  wrote  to  her  son  the  duke,  inciting  him  to  oppose  it  as  ruin- 
ous to  his  country,  and  steadfastly  to  concur  with  the  duke  of 
Atholl  and  those  in  the  opposition.^  Burnet  states  that  it  was 
suggested  that  she  and  her  son  had  particular  views,  as  hoping 
that,  if  Scotland  should  continue  a separate  kingdom,  the  crown 
might  come  into  their  family,  they  being  the  next  in  blood  after 
King  James’s  posterity. ”||  But  such  an  insinuation  is  altogether 

The  Level!  and  Melville  Papers,  p.  587. 

t Burnet’s  Histoiy  of  his  Own  Times,  vol.  vi.,  p.  277. 

}:  Descriptive  Catalogae  of  the  Hamilton  Papers  in  the  Miscellany  of  the  Maitland 
Club,  vol.  iv.,  p.  201. 

II  Burnet’s  History  of  his  Own  Times,  vol.  vi.,  p.  277. 


156 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


gratuitous.  The  love  of  country,  and  attachment  to  the  doctrine 
and  government  of  the  church  of  Scotland,  were  the  avowed  rea- 
sons of  her  hostility  to  the  union.  That  her  motives  were  family 
considerations  was  the  surmise  of  her  enemies,  which  they  could 
not  support  by  a single  word  she  had  ever  uttered  or  written,  or 
by  a single  action  she  had  ever  performed. 

Upon  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  and  the  public  ordinances 
of  religion,  the  duchess  set  a high  value.  She  attended  with 
exemplary  regularity  public  worship  on  the  Lord’s  day ; and 
after  the  revolution,  when  the  church  was  settled  in  a manner 
more  consonant  to  her  inclinations  than  before,  she  took  a Chris- 
tian interest  in  the  efficiency  and  success  of  the  gospel  ministry. 
To  secure  to  the  parishes  where  her  influence  extended,  such 
probationers  as,  upon  the  best  inquiry,  were  found  to  be  accep- 
table to  all  ranks  in  the  parish,  was  her  great  object.  To  the 
external  comfort  of  the  ministers  of  these  as  well  as  other  par- 
ishes, she  was  ever  ready  to  minister,  and  in  other  ways  to 
encourage  them  in  the  faithful  discharge  of  their  pastoral  duties. 
To  provide  more  extensively  the  means  of  grace  to  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  district  where  she  lived,  and  to  the  tenantry  on  her  es- 
tate, was  also  her  anxious  desire.  In  testimony  of  this,  she  endowed 
a second  minister  in  Hamilton,  and  another  in  Lesmahago.*  She 
endowed  a catechist,  or  preacher  of  the  gospel,  for  Strathaven, 
who  is  always  a licentiate  of  the  church  of  Scotland,  and  assists 
the  parish  minister  by  visiting  the  sick,  catechizing  the  parish, 
and  preaching  one  half  of  the  year.  By  her  deed  of  mortifica- 
tion, dated  1st  April,  1710,  the  annual  income  secured  to  him  is 
five  hundred  merks,  and  his  appointment  is  vested  in  the  noble 
family  of  Hamilton.!  To  the  stipend  of  the  parish  minister  of 
Strathaven  she  added  by  mortification,  the  annual  sum  of  five 
pounds,  which  is  regularly  paid  by  the  duke  of  Hamilton.^  She 
mortified,  15th  August,  1715,  a piece  of  ground  and  a barn,  for 
the  use  of  the  minister  of  Borrowstounness  and  his  successors 

* Scots  Magazine  for  1773,  pp.  5,  6.  Chalmer’s  Caledonia,  vol.  iii.,  p.  723.  The 
parish  of  Lesmahago  was  served  by  two  ministers  long  before  this  period.  The 
second  minister  was  established  a considerable  time  before  the  Restoration,  but  from 
what  source  his  stipend  was  then  paid  does  not  appear.  The  writer  in  the  Scots 
magazine,  in  recording  the  liberality  of  the  duchess  in  endowing  the  second  minis- 
ter in  the  parish  of  Lesmahago,  adds  : “ This  is  but  one  instance  I have  mentioned 
of  her  piety  and  generosity.  It  would  be  impossible  to  enumerate  them  all.  On 
this  account  her  memory  will  be  revered  not  only  in  Lesmahago,  where  she  was  so 
well  known,  but  by  all  acquainted  with  her  character,  as  long  as  a sense  of  virtue 
and  religion  remain  in  the  world.” 

t Descriptive  Catalogue  of  the  Hamilton  Papers  in  the  Miscellany  of  the  Mait- 
land Club,  vol.  iv.,  p.  206. 

t New  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland,  Lanarkshire,  Avondale. 


DUCHESS  OF  HAMILTON. 


157 


for  ever.*  She  also  mortified,  13th  October,  1694,  to  the  univer- 
sity of  Glasgow,  the  sum  of  eighteen  thousand  merks  for  the 
use  of  three  theologues,  from  time  to  time,  to  be  presented  by  the 
family  of  Hamilton.!  Besides  these  deeds  of  liberality,  “ she 
founded  and  endowed  several  schools,  built  bridges,  and  per- 
formed many  acts  of  benevolence,  which  make  her  name  to  be 
revered  in  Clydesdale  to  this  day.”! 

We  shall  only  advert  to  two  other  features  of  this  lady’s  Chris- 
tian character.  The  one  is,  the  sentiments  of  humility  which 
pervaded  her  spirit  in  the  house  of  God.  In  other  places,  and 
at  other  times,  she  was  not  unwilling  to  receive  the  honor  due  to 
her  rank  ; but  there,  seated  in  the  presence  of  the  Divine  Majesty, 
to  whom  ail  the  temporary  distinctions  of  life  are  nothing,  she 
wished  to  appear  on  the  same  footing  with  the  poorest,  feeling 
that  she  labored  under  the  same  necessities  as  a rational  and  an 
immortal  being ; that  she  had  equally  merited  God’s  wrath,  and 
equally  stood  in  need  of  his  mercy.  An  instance  of  this  pious 
humility  which  she  cherished  in  the  place  of  public  worship  is 
still  preserved.  At  the  stated  times  for  the  celebration  of  the 
Lord’s  supper,  in  the  parish  of  Hamilton,  she  was  a regular  com- 
municant ; and  on  one  of  these  occasions,  when  she  was  coming 
forward  to  the  table  of  the  Lord,  a plain,  decent,  aged  woman, 
who  was  just  taking  her  seat  at  the  table,  on  observing  her,  was 
about  to  step  aside  to  give  her  the  precedency ; but  the  duchess, 
unwilling  to  receive  in  that  place  such  marks  of  attention  and  re- 
spect, prevented  her,  saying,  “ Step  forward,  honest  woman,  there 
is  no  distinction  of  ranks  here.”il 

The  other  feature  of  her  character  worthy  of  special  notice, 
is  her  pains-taking  endeavors  to  train  up  her  children  in  the  nur- 
ture and  admonition  of  the  Lord.  “ There  is  nothing,”  as  has 
been  justly  observed,  “ which  presents  the  duchess’s  character  in 
a more  favorable  light,  and  recommends  her  more  for  imitation, 
than  the  decided  interest  she  took  in  the  religious  education  of 
her  own  family.  To  overlook  all  concern  about  having  religious 

* Descriptive  Catalogue  of  the  Hamilton  Papers  in  the  Miscellany  of  the  Maitland 
Club,  vol.  iv.,  p.  206.  t Ibid. 

t Anderson’s  Memoirs  of  the  House  of  Hamilton,  p.  150. 

II  This  anecdote  is  taken  from  a MS.  volume,  entitled  “ Memoirs  of  Catharine, 
Duchess  of  Atholl,  in  form  of  a Diary,  Originally  written  by  Herself.  To  which 
are  prefixed  Biographical  Notices  of  the  Duchess’s  Parents,  William  Third  Duke, 
and  Anne,  Duchess  of  Hamilton  ; Of  her  Husband,  John,  First  Duke  of  Atholl,  and 
of  Duchess  Catharine  herself.”  By  the  late  Rev.  Mr.  Moncrieff,  minister  of  the 
united  secession  church  in  Hamilton.  The  notice  of  the  duchess  Anne  is  short, 
but  interesting.  I can  not  here  omit  expressing  my  obligations  to  the  Rev.  W.  O. 
Moncrieff,  Musselburgh,  who  in  the  kindest  manner  favored  me  with  a perusal  of 
that  work  by  his  father,  with  full  permission  to  make  full  use  of  its  contents. 

14 


]58 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


principles  instilled  into  the  minds  of  their  children,  has  been  often 
too  common  with  those  in  conspicuous  ranks,  and  their  principal 
care  has  been  to  provide  for  them  every  facility  of  acquiring 
fashionable  and  polite  accomplishments.  A suitable  care  that 
her  family  might  not  be  without  the  accomplishments  becoming 
their  high  rank  in  society,  was  not  overlooked  by  her  grace. 
But  she  also  considered  that  it  was  a matter  of  the  first,  and  of 
vital  importance,  that  true  religion  should  be  understood,  esteemed, 
and  diligently  practised  in  her  family.  Her  children  were  much 
under  her  eye,  and  had  a great  respect  and  affection  for  her,  es- 
pecially her  daughter.  Lady  Catharine,*  who  became  the  wife 
of  the  duke  of  Atholl.  There  is  every  evidence,  from  the  diary 
of  Lady  Catharine,  that,  besides  other  means  of  information  and 
improvement  to  which  she  had  access,  the  instructions  and  ex- 
ample of  her  esteemed  mother  were  of  great  use,  by  the  blessing 
of  God,  in  disposing  her  mind  to  that  love  of  charity  and  reli- 
gion which  took  deep  root  in  her  heart,  and  to  that  faithful  dis- 
charge of  her  duties  as  a wife,  a parent,  and  a Christian,  for 
which  she  was  so  distinguished.”! 

The  duchess  lived  to  a very  advanced  age,  retaining  the  pos- 
session of  her  mental  faculties  to  the  last ; and  exhibiting  the 
most  exemplary  Christian  patience  under  the  infirmities  of  decli- 
ning years.  Mr.  Robert  Wylie,  minister  of  Hamilton,  in  a letter 
to  Bishop  Burnet,  her  old  friend,  dated  October  29,  1714,  says  : 

The  good  old  duchess  is  still  alive,  entire  in  her  judgment  and 
senses,  and  laboring  with  a most  exemplary  patience  and  resig- 
nation under  the  infirmities  of  old  age  and  frequent  conflicts  with 
the  gout.”J  This  was  very  nearly  two  years  before  her  death  ; 
which  took  place  at  the  palace  of  Hamilton,  on  Wednesday,  Oc- 
tober 17,  1716,  at  six  o’clock  at  night.  The  Scots  Courant  of 
that  year,  in  recording  her  death,  states  that  she  was  then  in  the 
eighty-sixth  year  of  her  age,  adding  that  she  was  a pious  and 
virtuous  lady,  and  is  much  lamented.”  Her  mortal  remains  were 
deposited  beside  those  of  her  husband,  father,  and  ancestors,  in 
the  family  burying-vault  at  Hamilton. 

The  particulars  of  her  last  illness  have  not  been  recorded  ; but 
the  manner  in  which  she  had  spent  a long  life,  had  been  such  as 
to  form  the  best  preparation  for  another  world,  and  it  can  not  be 
doubted  that  her  latter  end  was  peace.  She  came  to  the  grave 
in  a good  old  age,  like  as  a shock  of  corn  cometh  in  its  season 
Men  of  different  and  opposite  political  and  religious  creeds,  have 

* A notice  of  this  lady  is  given  in  the  close  of  this  volume. 

t Mr.  Moncrieff’s  MS.  f Wodrow’s  Correspondence,  vol.  i.,  p.  604. 


MRS.  WILLIAM  VEITCH. 


159 


■united  in  paying  homage  to  her  virtue,  piety,  and  mental  endow- 
ments. Bishop  Burnet’s  testimony  to  these  has  already  been 
quoted.  Crawford  describes  her  as  ‘‘  a lady  who  for  constancy 
of  mind,  evenness  of  temper,  solidity  of  judgment,  and  an  unaf- 
fected piety,  will  leave  a shining  character,  as  well  as  example,  to 
posterity,  for  her  conduct  as  a wife,  a mother,  a mistress,  and  in 
all  other  conditions  of  life.”*  Lockhart,  a violent  Jacobite,  char- 
acterizes her  as  “ a lady  of  great  honor  and  singular  piety.”! 
And  so  high  was  the  reputation  for  Christian  excellence  which 
she  left  behind  her,  that  her  memory  was  cherished  with  affec- 
tionate veneration  long  after  her  death,  and  even  down  to  the 
present  day,  the  “ good  duchess  Anne”  is  the  name  by  which 
she  is  familiarly  known  in  the  district  where  she  commonly  re- 
sided, and  where  her  piety  and  benevolence  were  best  known. 


MRS.  WILLIAM  VEITCH.j: 

Marion  Fairlie,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  “ who,”  as  the 
editor  of  her  diary  well  observes,  endured  an  amount  of  domes- 
tic affliction  and  vexatious  persecution,  in  many  cases  more  try- 
ing than  martyrdom  itself,”  was  born  in  1638,  a year  famous  in 
the  annals  of  the  presbyterian  church  of  Scotland.  Her  father 
was  descended  from  the  ancient  family  of  the  Fairlies,  of  the 
house  of  Braid,  near  Edinburgh,  and  was  related  to  Lord  Lee’s 
first  lady,  who  was  of  that  house  and  name.  Both  her  parents 
being  eminent  for  piety  were  careful  to  instruct  her  in  her  tender 
years  in  the  principles  of  divine  truth,  and  to  impress  upon  her 
mind  the  importance  of  the  one  thing  needful.  By  the  Divine 
blessing  on  these  labors  of  parental  love,  together  with  the  pas- 
toral instructions  of  an  evangelical  and  faithful  minister,  Mr. 
Robert  Birnie,  of  Lanark,  she  early  acquired  that  deep  sense  of 
the  things  of  God  which  she  exemplified  to  the  close  of  a ]ong 
life.  “ It  pleased  God,”  says  she,  “ of  his  great  goodness,  early 
to  incline  my  heart  to  seek  him,  and  bless  him  that  I was  born 
in  a land  where  the  gospel  was  at  that  time  purely  and  power- 
fully preached  ; as  also,  that  I was  born  of  godly  parents  and 
well  educated.  But  above  all  things,  I bless  him  that  he  made 

Crawford’s  Peerage  of  Scotland,  p.  212.  f Lockhart’s  Papers,  vol.  i.,  p.  597. 

X This  notice  of  Mrs.  Veitch  is  drawn  up  chiefly  from  her  own  diary,  and  from 
the  memoirs  of  Mr.  V eitch,  written  by  himself. 


160 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


me  see  that  nothing  but  the  righteousness  of  Christ  could  save 
me  from  the  wrath  of  God.”  She  adds,  “ one  day  having  been 
at  prayer,  and  coming  into  the  room  where  one  was  reading  a 
letter  of  Mr.  Rutherford’s  (then  only  in  manuscript),  directed  to 
one  John  Gordon,  of  Rosco,  giving  an  account  how  far  one  might 
go,  and  yet  prove  a hypocrite  and  miss  heaven,  it  occasioned 
great  exercise  to  me.*  Misbelief  said  I should  go  to  hell ; but 
one  day  at  prayer,  the  Lord  was  graciously  pleased  to  set  home 
upon  my  heart  that  w^ord,  ‘ To  whom.  Lord,  shall  we  go?  thou 
hast  the  words  of  eternal  life’  (John,  vi.  68).  And  at  another 
time,  that  word,  ‘ Those  that  seek  me  early  shall  find  me,’  Prov. 
viii.  17.” 

On  the  23d  of  November,  1664,  she  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Mr.  William  Yeitch,  son  of  Mr.  John  Veitch,  the  nonconforming, 
ejected  minister  of  Roberton.  Mr.  Veitch  had  been  for  some 
time  previous,  chaplain  to  Sir  Hugh  Campbell,  of  Calder,  in  Mo- 
rayshire, but  was  forced  to  leave  that  family  about  September 
that  year ; for  on  the  restoration  of  prelacy,  none,  according  to 
an  act  of  parliament,  were  permitted  to  be  chaplains  in  families, 
to  teach  any  public  school,  or  to  be  tutors  to  the  children  of  per- 
sons of  quality,  without  the  license  of  the  bishop  of  the  diocese  ;t 
and  Mr.  Murdoch  McKenzie,  bishop  of  Moray,  having,  upon 
making  inquiry,  found  Mr.  Veitch’s  opinions  hostile  to  prelacy, 
would  not  suffer  him  to  remain  in  that  situation.  He  accordingly 
came  south,  and  staying  some  time  with  his  father,  who,  since 
his  ejection,  had  taken  up  his  residence  at  Lanark,  became  ac- 
quainted with  the  godly  families  of  that  place,  among  which  was 
the  family  of  the  young  lady  whom  he  married.  Several  of  her 
friends  endeavored,  but  without  effect,  to  dissuade  her  from  the  mar- 
riage, urging,  among  other  reasons,  the  worldly  straits  to  which, 
from  the  discouraging  aspect  of  the  times,  she  might  be  reduced. 
This  at  first  occasioned  her  no  inconsiderable  anxiety  of  mind ; 
but  she  resolved  to  trust  in  God’s  promises  for  all  needful  tempo- 
ral good  things,  as  well  as  for  spiritual  blessings.  “ And,”  says 
she,  “these  promises  were  remarkably  made  good  to  me  in  all 
the  various  places  of  my  sojourning  in  diverse  kingdoms,  which 
I here  mention  to  the  commendation  of  his  faithfulness.  His 
word  in  this  has  been  a tried  word  to  me,  worthy  to  be  recorded, 
to  encourage  me  to  trust  him  for  the  future  ; w^ho  heretofore  has 
not  only  provided  well  for  me  and  mine,  but  made  me  in  the 
places  where  my  lot  was  cast  useful  to  others,  and  made  that 

* See  Rutherford’s  Letters,  p.  552.  Whyte  and  Kennedy’s  edition. 

t Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  i.,  p.  267. 


MRS.  WILLIAM  VEITCH. 


161 


word  good,  ‘ As  having  nothing,  and  yet  possessing  all  things,’  2 
Cor.  vi.,  10.” 

Scarcely  two  years  after  her  marriage,  the  storm  of  persecu- 
tion burst  upon  her  and  Mr.  Veitch,  separating  them  from  each 
other,  and  ultimately  forcing  them  to  seek  refuge  in  England. 
Mr.  Veitch,  who  was  a bold  and  daring  man,  was  prevailed  upon 
by  Mr.  John  Welsh,  minister  of  Iron  gray,  and  others  who  came 
to  his  house  at  the  Westhills  of  Dunsyre,  where  he  farmed  a 
piece  of  land,  to  join  with,  that  party  of  the  covenanters,  who, 
provoked  by  the  brutal  cruelties  and  robberies  of  Sir  James  Tur- 
ner, rose  in  arms,  and  were  defeated  by  the  king’s  forces  at 
Pentland  hills.*  This  was  the  origin  of  the  multiplied  dangers 
and  troubles  to  which  he  and  Mrs.  Veitch  were  subjected,  by  the 
government  and  its  agents,  during  a series  of  many  years.  She 
seems  to  have  had  no  scruples  of  conscience  as  to  the  propriety 
of  the  appeal  which  the  covenanters,  in  this  instance,  made  to 
arms  : she  at  least  wished  them  all  success.  On  the  night  of 
the  defeat,  she  was  entertaining  several  of  the  officers  who  had 
fled  to  her  house  for  shelter,  and  weeping  lest  her  husband,  of 
whose  fate  they  could  not  inform  her,  should  have  been  killed. 
On  that  same  night*  Mr.  Veitch  made  his  escape,  and  came  to  a 
herdsman’s  house  in  Dunsyre  common,  within  a mile  of  his  own 
house,  giving  the  herdsman  his  horse  to  take  home  to  his  own 
stable,  and  desiring  him  to  inform  Mrs.  Veitch  of  his  safety. 
He  lurked  several  nights  thereabout,  and  at  last  retired  into 
England. 

Two  days  after  the  battle,  Mrs.  Veitch  was  thrown  into  alarm 
by  a party  of  Dalziel’s  troop,  which  that  general,  on  learning 
where  Mr.  Veitch  resided,  had  sent  to  the  house  to  search  for 
him ; but  to  her  great  comfort,  he  was  not  at  home,  and  though 
in  the  immediate  neighborhood  escaped  falling  into  their  hands. 
It  was  also  gratifying  both  to  him  and  her,  that  the  troopers  did 
not  get  his  fine  horse,  the  man-servant  having  led  him  out  to  the 
moor ; for  as  it  belonged  to  Lord  Loudon,  from  whom  the  insur- 
gent covenanters  had  taken  it,  on  account  of  his  sending  his  offi- 
cer to  warn  all  his  tenants  not  to  rise  to  their  assistance,  they 
were  anxious  to  restore  it  to  its  rightful  owner.  On  the  following 
day,  which  was  Saturday,  Mr.  Veitch  having  sent  a man-servant 
down  to  Tweeddale,  to  •see  whether  it  might  be  safe  to  travel 
through  that  part  of  the  country,  Mrs.  Veitch  rode  behind  the 
man-servant,  upon  Lord  Loudon’s  horse,  to  the  house  of  Mr.  Pat- 
rick Fleming,  minister  of  Stobo,  a nonconformist,  and  sent  Mr. 

* The  battle  was  fought  on  Wednesday,  the  28th  of  November,  1666. 

14* 


162 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


Veitch  word,  according  to  his  desire,  by  the  man-servant,  who 
was  to  return,  that  he  might,  to  all  appearance,  with  perfect 
safety,  join  her  at  the  house  of  their  friend,  as  she  had  observed 
no  parties  searching  in  that  direction.  On  Mr.  Veitch’s  arrival 
at  Mr.  Fleming’s  house,  which  was  about  midnight,  it  was  judged 
safest  for  him  immediately  to  leave  it,  and  seek  shelter  else- 
where ; and  Mrs.  Veitch  accompanied  him  on  his  journey,  it 
being  now  the  sabbath  morning,  riding  behind  him  on  the  same 
horse.  They  reached  Glenvetches  before  day,  and  at  night 
came  to  Torwoodle,  the  residence  of  Mr.  George  Pringle,  who, 
with  his  lady,  a daughter  of  Brodie,  of  Lethin,  in  the  north  of 
Scotland,  were  ardently  attached  to  the  religion  and  liberty  of 
their  country,  and  whose  house  was  a sanctuary  to  many  of  the 
persecuted  in  those  e^dl  times.  Leaving  this  hospitable  man- 
sion, they  next  proceeded  to  the  house  of  Mr.  Yeitch’s  brother, 
Mr.  John,  minister  of  Werstruther,  in  the  shire  of  Berwick. 
Here  having  seen  the  printed  proclamation  for  the  apprehension 
of  the  leading  whigs,  in  which  his  own  name  appeared,  Mr. 
Veitch  deemed  it  prudent  to  secure  his  safety  by  fleeing  into 
England,  leaving  behind  him  his  wife  and  Lord  Loudon’s  horse 
She  rode  on  the  horse  to  Edinburgh,  where  she  delivered  it  to 
one  of  his  lordship’s  friends,  and  then  returned  to  her  own  family 
at  the  Westhills  of  Dunsyre.  Meanwhile  Mr.  Veitch  went  to 
Newcastle. 

After  her  return  home,  Mrs.  Veitch  was  greatly  molested  with 
parties  of  troopers,  who  came  to  her  house  to  search  for  her  hus- 
band. On  such  occasions  it  was  usual  for  a party  of  them  to 
surround  the  house  to  prevent  him,  should  he  be  within,  from 
making  his  escape  by  the  windows,  or  any  concealed  or  back 
door,  while  another  party  went  into  the  house  and  searched 
through  every  room  and  corner.  Judging  that  there  was  more 
likelihood  of  his  being  at  home  during  the  night  than  during  the 
day,  they  ordinarily  paid  their  unwelcome  visits  in  the  night, 
when  Mrs.  Veitch  and  her  children  were  in  bed;  and  at  what- 
ever hour  they  came,  they  rudely  commanded  her  to  rise  and 
open  the  doors,  threatening,  that  unless  she  did  so  quickly,  they 
would  force  an  entrance  by  breaking  them  up.  But  though  often 
engaged  in  making  these  searches,  and  so  intent  upon  their  ob- 
ject as  to  secure  the  aid  of  a malignant  laird  and  lady  in  the 
neighborhood,  who  promised  to  inform  them  when  he  came  home, 
they  never  succeeded  in  finding  him.  Hearing  of  the  harassing 
annoyances  to  which  his  wife  was  subjected,  Mr.  Veitch,  dan- 
gerous as  it  was,  came  from  Newcastle  to  see  her  and  the  chil- 


MRS.  WILLIAM  VEITCH. 


163 


dren,  and  advised  her  to  give  up  the  farm  and  take  up  her  resi- 
dence in  Edinburgh,  where  he  hoped  she  might  be  suffered  to 
remain  in  quiet.  Removing  to  Edinburgh,  in  compliance  with 
his  desire,  she  continued  to  live  with  her  children  in  the  capital 
for  several  years,  during  which  time  she  was  free  from  the  trouble- 
some visiters  who  had  rendered  her  so  uncomfortable  at  the  West- 
hills  of  Dunsyre. 

At  length,  about  the  year  1672,  she  and  the  children  went  to 
England  to  live  with  Mr.  Yeitch,  who,  after  travelling  from  place 
to  place,  preaching  the  gospel  to  the  English  nonconformists,  who 
had  been  deprived  of  their  ministers  by  the  act  of  uniformity, 
and  by  subsequent  proceedings  on  the  part  of  government,  had 
been  prevailed  with  by  the  people  of  Reedsdale,  in  Northumber- 
land, to  give  them  the  benefit  of  his  stated  ministry,  and  to  bring 
his  family  thither.  Before  leaving  Scotland  she  had  given  birth 
to  four  children.  There  two  of  them,  a daughter  and  a son,  had 
'died  and  were  buried.  The  other  two,  who  were  sons,  William 
and  Samuel,  she  took  with  her  to  England.  In  those  days,  when 
neither  railways  nor  stagecoaches  existed,  it  was  the  custom  to 
convey  children  to  a distance  in  creels  upon  horseback,  and  by 
this  slow  and  inconvenient  mode  of  travelling  she  brought  her 
two  boys  by  different  stages  from  Edinburgh  to  the  new  place 
of  their  residence,  which  was  a village  called  Falalies,  within 
the  parish  of  Rothbury,  in  Northumberland.  Here  Mr.  Veitch, 
for  the  better  support  of  his  family,  farmed  a piece  of  ground,  the 
salary  he  received  as  minister  from  the  people,  who  were  poor, 
being  altogether  inadequate  for  the  maintenance  of  his  family, 
and  all  that  he  had  having  been  taken  from  him  upon  his  forfeit- 
ure in  life  and  fortune  after  the  battle  of  Pentland  hills,  except 
a little  which  was  unknown  to  his  persecutors.  After  recording 
in  her  diary  her  removal  from  Scotland  to  England,  Mrs.  Veitch 
says  : “ Being  deprived  of  what  once  I had  in  Scotland,  I re- 
newed my  suit  to  God  for  me  and  mine,  and  that  was,  that  he 
would  give  us  the  tribe  of  Levi’s  inheritance,  ‘ For  the  Lord  God 
was  their  inheritance,’  Josh.  xiii.  33.  When  I entered  into  a 
strange  land,  I besought  the  Lord  that  he  would  give  me  food  to 
eat  and  raiment  to  put  on,  and  bring  me  back  to  set  his  glory  in 
Scotland.  This  promise  was  exactly  made  out  to  me.” 

She  did  not  remain  long  in  that  place,  having  gone  with  Mr. 
Veitch  to  reside  five  miles  farther  in  the  country,  where,  besides 
preaching  in  a hall  at  Harnam,  he  farmed  a piece  of  ground,  and 
got  as  a residence  for  his  family  Harnamhall,  the  mansion  of 
Major  Babington,  the  representative  of  the  Babingtons,  a family 


164 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


whose  antiquity  in  Britain  is  traced  as  far  back  as  the  Conquest, 
After  continuing  here  four  years,  being  again  under  the  neces- 
sity of  removing,  the  house  and  ground  having  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  a new  proprietor,  who  refused  to  continue  Mr.  Veitch 
as  his  tenant,  she  accompanied  him  to  Stantonhall,  in  the  parish 
of  Longhorsly,  in  May,  1676  or  1677.  That  district,  abounding 
with  papists,  and  the  incumbent  of  the  parish,  Mr.  Thomas  Bell, 
a Scotsman,  being  a violent  persecutor,  it  was  far  from  being  a 
desirable  place  of  residence  for  the  family  of  a nonconforming 
presbyterian  minister.  Here  Mrs.  Yeitch  experienced  no  small 
trouble  from  the  repeated  attempts  made  to  apprehend  Mr.  Yeitch. 
At  one  time,  on  the  second  sabbath  of  August,  1678,  about  three 
o’clock  in  the  afternoon,  two  justices  of  the  peace,  on  the  simple 
information  of  a single  individual,  seconded  by  the  threatenings 
and  persuasion  of  Mr.  Bell,  came  with  some  men  to  apprehend 
him  at  a meeting  in  his  own  house.  One  of  the  justices,  with 
his  party,  came  to  the  front  gates,  while  the  other,  with  his  party,' 
appeared  at  the  back  gate.  They  rudely  broke  into  the  house, 
and  searched  through  it  with  pistols  in  their  hands.  Baffled  in 
their  attempts  to  find  Mr.  Yeitch,  who  concealed  himself  within 
the  lining  of  a large  window,  which  had  been  made  for  that  pur- 
pose, they  at  last  went  away,  after  having  advised  Mrs.  Yeitch 
to  allow  her  husband  to  preach  only  to  herself  and  her  children 
in  which  case  they  assured  her  she  should  not  be  troubled. 

Another  attempt,  made  some  time  after,  to  apprehend  him, 
proving  successful,  became  to  her  a source  of  greater  trouble. 
On  sabbath,  the  19th  of  January,  1679,  Major  Oglethorp,  with  a 
party  of  his  dragoons  from  Morpeth,  arrived  at  her  house,  which 
was  three  or  four  miles  distant  from  Morpeth,  about  five  o’clock 
in  the  morning,  while  the  family  were  fast  asleep.  One  Cleugh, 
a sheriff-bailiff,  whom  Oglethorp  (who  was  a stranger  in  the 
country)  had  hired  as  his  guide,  on  reaching  the  house,  went  to 
the  window  of  the  parlor  where  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Yeitch  were  sleep- 
ing, and  rapping  on  the  glass  of  the  window,  repeatedly  called 
out  the  name  of  Mr.  Yeitch,  who,  awaking,  asked  who  was  there. 
On  hearing  him  speak,  Cleugh  said  to  the  major,  who  was  stand- 
ing beside  him,  “ Now,  yonder  he  is  : I have  no  more  to  do.” 
Oglethorp,  thus  understanding  that  the  object  of  his  search  was 
in  the  house,  instantly  broke  in  pieces  the  glass  window,  in  or- 
der to  get  in  ; but  finding  iron  bars  in  his  way,  he  demanded  that 
the  door  should  be  immediately  opened ; and,  impatient  of  delay, 
he  and  his  dragoons  broke  in  at  the  hall-windows,  and  getting 
their  candles  lighted  before  the  servant-maid  opened  the  inneif 


MRS.  WILLIAM  VEITCH. 


165 


doors,  they  apprehended  Mr,  Veitch,  and  carried  him  to  Morpeth 
jail,  where  he  continued  prisoner  twelve  days. 

During  the  time  that  this  scene  was  enacting,  Mrs.  Veitch, 
though  not  free  from  alarm,  yet  persuaded  that  men  could  do 
nothing  against  her  and  her  husband  but  what  God  permitted, 
conducted  herself  with  a degree  of  composure  which  even  sur- 
prised the  rude  and  heartless  military.  In  relating  the  scene, 
she  says  : “It  bred  some  trouble  and  new  fear  to  my  spirit ; but 
He  was  graciously  pleased  to  set  home  that  word,  ‘ He  does  all 
things  well,’  Mark  vii.  37  ; ‘ Trust  in  the  Lord,  and  fear  not  what 
man  can  do,’  Ps.  Ivi.  11  ; which  brought  peace  to  me  in  such  a 
measure,  that  I was  made  often  to  wonder ; for  all  the  time  the 
officers  were  in  the  house  He  supported  me,  so  that  I was  not  in 
the  least  discouraged  before  them,  which  made  Major  Oglethorp 
say  he  wondered  to  see  me.  I told  him  I looked  to  a higher 
hand  than  his  in  this,  and  I knew  he  could  not  go  one  hair 
breadth  beyond  God’s  permission.  He  answered  that  He  per- 
mits his  enemies  to  go  a great  length  sometimes.  They  took  him 
to  prison,  where  he  lay  about  twelve  days.” 

During  that  period  of  Mr.  Yeitch’s  imprisonment  Mrs.  Veitch 
was  deeply  afflicted  in  spirit,  for  which  she  had  indeed  too  much 
reason,  her  prospects  being  very  dark  and  distressing.  She  had 
no  ground  to  hope  that  he  would  be  soon  released.  She  had,  on 
the  contrary,  much  cause  to  fear  that  he  would  share  the  fate  of 
those  who  had  been  put  to  death  for  the  Pentland  insurrection ; 
for  he  was  regarded  by  the  government  as  a traitor  of  the  deepest 
dye  : sentence  of  death  had  been  pronounced  against  him  in  his 
absence  for  high-treason,*  and  he  was  excluded  by  name  from 
the  king’s  pardon  and  indemnityf — all  which  augured  ill  for  his 
future  safety.  Besides,  she  had  now  six  helpless  children,  en- 
tirely dependent  upon  herself,  with  no  apparent  means  of  provi- 
ding for  their  temporal  necessities.  But  though  sunk  in  sorrow 
in  such  trying  circumstances,  she  was  not  overwhelmed  with 
despair.  Betaking  herself  to  the  throne  of  grace,  where  the 
afflicted  have  so  often  found  relief,  and  reposing  in  the  gracious 
promises  of  God’s  word,  she  was  enabled  to  acquiesce  in  the 
Divine  will,  even  though  her  husband  should  fall  a sacrifice  to 
the  fury  of  persecution,  and  though  she  herself,  with  her  father- 
less children,  should  be  cast  destitute  upon  the  world.  “ All  the 
twelve  days  of  his  imprisonment,”  she  says,  “ I was  under  much 
exercise  of  spirit,  which  made  me  go  to  God  many  times  on  his 
behalf.  He  made  that  word  often  sweet  to  me,  ‘ He  perforraeth 
* On  the  16tli  of  August,  1667.  t Dated  October  1,  1667. 


163 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


the  things  appointed  for  me,’  Job  xxiii.  14  ; and  that,  ‘ He  is  of 
one  mind,  and  who  can  turn  him  V verse  13.  Much  means  were 
used  for  his  liberty,  but  all  to  no  effect,  which  bred  new  errands 
to  God  for  him  and  me.  But  misbelief  coming  in  and  telling 
many  ill  tales  of  God,  was  like  to  discourage  me  ; to  wit,  that  I 
was  a stranger  in  a strange  land,  and  had  six  small  children,  and 
little  in  the  world  to  look  to.  But  He  comforted  me  with  these 
words  : — 

‘ O why  art  thon  cast  down,  my  soul — 

What  should  discourage  thee  ? 

And  why  with  vexing  thoughts  art  thou 
Disquieted  in  me  ? 

Still  trast  in  God  ; for  him  to  praise 
Good  cause  I yet  shall  have  : 

He  of  my  count’nance  is  the  health, 

My  God  that  doth  me  save.’ — Ps.  xliii.  5. 

“ At  length  He  helped  me  to  give  him  freely  to  Him,  to  do 
with  him  as  He  pleased  ; and  if  his  blood  should  fill  up  the  cup 
of  the  enemy,  and  bring  about  deliverance  to  His  church,  I would 
betake  myself  to  His  care  and  providence  for  me  and  my  chil- 
dren.” She  adds,  as  if  her  faith  had  stayed  the  fury  of  the  per- 
secutor, and  arrested  his  cruel  purpose  : And  while  I was  yet 
speaking  to  God  in  prayer,  that  word  was  wonderfully  brought 
into  my  mind,  ‘ Abraham,  hold  thy  hand,  for  I have  provided  a 
sacrifice’  (Gen.  xxii.  11,  12),  which  comforted  me  concerning 
my  husband  ; and  that  word,  ^ The  meal  in  the  barrel  shall  not 
waste,  nor  the  oil  in  the  cruise,  until  the  Lord  send  rain  on  the 
earth’  (1  Kings  xvii.  14),  which  brought  much  peace  to  my 
troubled  spirit  concerning  my  troubled  family.  I thought  I had 
now  ground  to  believe  he  should  not  die  ; but  misbelief  soon  got 
the  upper  hand,  and  told  me  it  was  not  the  language  of  faith, 
which  put  me  to  go  to  God,  and  pour  out  my  spirit  before  him. 
And  He  answered  me  with  that  word,  ‘ They  that  walk  in  dark- 
ness and  have  no  light,  let  them  trust  in  the  Lord,  and  stay  tl\pm- 
selves  on  their  God!’  (Isaiah  1.  10),  which  refreshed  me  much, 
and  gave  me  more  ground  to  believe  my  husband  should  not  die.” 

While  Mr.  Yeitch  was  lying  in  Morpeth  jail,  she  received  a 
letter  from  him,  written  on  the  evening  of  the  eleventh  day  of  his 
imprisonment,  informing  her  that  an  order  having  been  despatched 
from  the  king  and  English  council  to  transport  him  to  Scotland, 
there  to  suffer  for  alleged  misdemeanors,  he  was  to  be  removed 
from  Morpeth  for  Scotland  on  the  morrow,  and  requesting  her 
immediately  to  come  and  see  him.  “ When  I opened  the  letter,” 
she  says,  “ he  had  that  expression,  ‘ Deep  calleth  unto  deep,’  &c. 


MRS.  WILLIAM  VEITCH. 


167 


But  He  [God]  was  pleased  to  send  home  that  word,  ‘ Good  is 
the  word  of  the  Lord,’  which  silenced  much  my  misbelief.”  On 
receivino'  the  letter,  she  proceeded  without  delay  to  Morpeth, 
riding,  along  with  a man-servant,  through  a deep  storm  of  snow, 
and  arrived  at  an  inn  in  Morpeth  after  midnight.  Not  being 
allowed  access  to  her  husband  till  the  morning,  she  sat,  during 
the  remainder  of  the  night,  at  the  fireside  ; and  when  admitted  to 
him,  she  could  not  speak  to  him  but  in  the  presence  of  a guard 
of  soldiers,  who  were  that  night  placed  in  the  room  to  watch  him, 
lest  he  should  make  his  escape.  Nor  had  she  been  long  with 
him,  when,  the  kettle-drums  beating  the  troops  presently  to  arms, 
he  was  separated  from  her,  and  being  carried  out  to  the  streets, 
was  set  on  horseback,  in  the  midst  of  the  soldiers  (the  town’s 
people,  from  curiosity,  running  to  gaze),  and  brought  to  Alnwick, 
thence  to  Belford,  thence  to  Berwick,  and  after  being  kept  there 
for  some  time,  was  carried  to  Edinburgh,  where  he  was  thrown 
into  prison.  “ All  these  things,”  says  she,  “were  against  me, 
and  conspired  to  frighten  me  ; but  that  word,  being  set  home, 
wonderfully  supported  me,  ‘ Fear  thou  not  the  fear  of  man,  but 
let  the  Lord  be  your  fear  and  your  dread’ (Isaiah  viii.  12,  13).  I 
went  after  to  a friend’s  house  in  the  town,  and  wept  my  fill,  and 
some  friends  with  me.  He  desired  that  a day  might  be  kept  [for 
offering  up  prayers  in  his  behalf],  which  was  done  in  several 
places  of  the  country.  I went  home  to  my  children,  having  one 
upon  the  breast.  I was  under  much  exercise  about  him,  and  it 
was  my  suit  to  Him  who,  I can  say,  is  a present  help  in  the  time 
of  trouble,  that  he  might  be  kept  from  the  evil  of  sin  ; which  He 
was  graciously  pleased  to  answer.”  The  concluding  sentence 
of  this  quotation,  though  very  humbly  and  unostentatiously  ex- 
pressed, breathes  a spirit  of  noble  Christian  fortitude — the  holy 
heroism  of  the  martyr.  So  strong  was  her  sense  of  the  para- 
mount claims  of  duty,  that  to  witness  her  husband  undergoing  his 
present  hardships,  and  even  crueller  treatment,  however  painful 
to  natural  affection,  was  less  painful  to  her  than  would  have  been 
the  sight  of  his  doing,  from  motives  of  worldly  ease,  aught  which 
God  and  conscience  would  condemn. 

As  a farther  aggravation  of  the  distressing  circumstances  into 
which  she  and  her  children  were  at  this  time  reduced,  it  may  be 
added  that,  being  conducted  to  Edinburgh  jail  at  his  own  expense, 
Mr.  Veitch  was  under  the  necessity  of  selling  his  stock  for 
money  to  bear  his  charges,  and,  “ by  so  doing,  to  lay  his  farm 
lea,  rendering  it  presently  useless  to  his  family,  yea,  so  disabled, 
as  the  way-going  crop  was  lost,  in  which  sad  posture  he  left  them : 


]68 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


the  children  young,  insensible  of  the  matter,  and  unfit  to  do  for 
themselves,  so  that  the  whole  burden  was  laid  on  the  mother.” 

To  the  extracts  made  from  Mrs.  Veitch’s  diary  during  this  pe- 
riod of  trial,  we  may  add  the  interesting  record  left  by  Mr.  Veitch, 
of  her  distressful  feelings  and  her  faith  in  God  under  it,  which 
proves  that  she  was,  as  he  expresses  it,  “ a meet  helper  for  him 
indeed,  in  this  very  case.”  “ Trouble  and  anguish,”  says  he, 
‘‘  did  now  compass  her  about  in  this  darkest  hour  of  her  twelve 
years’  night  of  affliction.  Her  soul  melteth  for  heaviness  and 
grief ; she  is  now  in  deep  waters  in  a foreign  land,  far  from  her 
relations,  friends,  and  acquaintances ; distress  and  desolation  at 
home,  and  destruction  and  death  abroad  ; the  sad  report  whereof, 
with  trembling,  she  expects  every  day,  because  of  the  fury  of  the 
oppressor.  This  puts  her  on  a most  serious  exercise,  and  firm 
resolution  to  take  God  for  all.  He  should  be  the  husband,  and 
he  should  be  the  farm  ; he  should  be  the  stock  and  the  crop ; he 
should  be  the  provider,  the  food,  and  the  raiment,  the  master  of 
the  family,  and  the  father  of  the  children ; yea,  she  resolved  to 
cleave  faster  unto  this  relation  than  Ruth  did  to  Naomi,  for  that 
which  parted  them  should  bring  her  to  the  greatest  nearness, 
most  inseparable  and  comfortable  communion  with  her  God. 
Thus,  while  deep  called  unto  deep,  she  held  by  her  compass,  and 
followed  the  precedents  of  the  word.  Her  prayer  was  in  this 
night  to  the  God  of  her  life,  and  Jacob-like,  she  gave  it  not  over 
till  she  got  a new  lease  of  her  husband’s  life  granted  her  ; which, 
when  she  obtained,  she  wrote  an  encouraging  letter  to  him  at 
Berwick  (the  weaning  of  her  child  Sarah  not  suff’ering  her  yet 
to  visit  him),  telling  him  that  he  should  be  like  Isaac,  with  the 
knife  at  his  throat,  near  to  death  ; but  the  Lord  would  find  a sac- 
rifice, and  the  enemy  should  be  restrained.  She  wished  him 
also  not  to  be  anxious  about  his  family,  for  the  meal  and  the  oil, 
little  as  it  was,  should  not  fail ; not  only  till  he  returned,  but  also 
the  kingdom  to  Israel.  These  instances,  so  clearly  and  convin- 
cingly borne  in  upon  her,  gave  her  good  ground  to  say  with  the 
psalmist,  ‘ Thy  word  is  my  comfort  in  all  my  afflictions  her 
prayers  and  pleadings  were  turned  to  praises,  and  his  statutes 
were  her  ‘ songs  in  the  house  of  her  pilgrimage,’  and  she  was 
persuaded  that  her  night  would  yet  have  a day  succeeding 
it,  wherein  he  would,  as  a special  favor  to  her  and  her  family, 
command  his  loving  kindness.” 

Under  all  her  sufferings,  Mrs.  Veitch  uniformly  speaks  in  a 
chastened  and  subdued  tone  of  those  by  whom  they  were  inflict- 
ed ; nor  did  she  yield  to  that  bitterness  and  exultation  of  spirit 


MRS.  WILLIAM  VEITCH. 


169 


whicli  the  human  heart  is  so  naturally  inclined  to  cherish,  at  wit- 
nessing or  hearing  of  the  calamities  or  judgments  which  may 
light  on  an  enemy.  Within  five  days  after  Mr.  Veitch’s  trans- 
portation from  Morpeth  to  Edinburgh,  one  of  the  most  virulent 
of  his  persecutors,  Mr.  Bell,  formerly  referred  to,*  met  with  his 
death  in  very  appalling  circumstances.  On  returning  home  from 
Newcastle,  he  stopped  at  Ponlilland,  and  continued  drinking 
there  with  the  curate  till  about  ten  o’clock  at  night,  when  he  de- 
termined to  go  home.  The  curate  urged  him,  as  the  night  was 
dark  and  stormy,  and  the  river  Pont,  which  he  had  to  cross,  was 
much  swollen,  to  remain  till  to-morrow ; and,  to  detain  him,  took 
his  watch  from  him,  and  locked  up  his  horse  in  the  stable.  But, 
as  if  impelled  by  some  unseen  power  to  his  fate,  he  would  not  be 
persuaded,  and,  getting  his  horse,  proceeded  on  his  journey. 
Two  days  after  he  was  found  standing  dead  up  to  the  arm-pits  in 
the  river  Pont,  near  the  side,  the  violence  of  the  frost  having  fro- 
zen him  in.  His  hat  and  gloves  were  on,  and  his  boots  and 
gloves  were  much  worn  from  his  struggles  among  the  ice  to  get 
out.  Mrs.  Yeitch’s  reflections  on  this  awful  visitation  are  Chris- 
tian and  becoming : “ The  whole  country  about  was  astonished 
at  that  dispensation,  and  often  said  to  me  there  would  none  trou- 
ble my  husband  again,  for  they  all  knew  that  he  was  an  enemy  to 
my  husband.  I told  them  they  that  would  not  take  warning  from 
the  word  of  God,  would  never  take  warning  from  that.  That 
scripture  was  often  borne  in  upon  my  spirit,  ‘ Rejoice  not  at  the 
fall  of  thine  enemy,  lest  He  see  it,  and  be  displeased.’  ” She 
adds,  “ I bless  the  Lord  I was  not  in  the  least  lifted  up  with  it ; 
for  his  word  was  my  counsellor  ; in  all  my  doubts  and  fears  it 
was  as  refreshing  to  me  as  ever  meat  and  drink  were.  There 
are  none  that  study  to  make  the  work  of  God  the  rule  of  their 
walk,  and  when  grace  is  master  of  the  house,  but  they  will  say, 
as  David  said  when  Shimei  railed  on  him,  ‘ Let  him  alone,  God 
hath  bidden  him,  who  knows  but  he  will  requite  blessings  for 
cursings  V But  when  corrupt  nature  is  master,  it  will  say,  ‘ Cut 
off  the  head  of  the  dog ;’  but  I am  much  in  grace’s  debt ; that 
kept  me  back  from  being  of  Shimei’s  frame,”  In  reference  to 
another  case  of  ill  treatment  received,  she  makes  similar  re- 
marks, “ I bless  the  Lord  who  kept  me  from  being  of  a revenge- 
ful spirit.  Whatever  I met  with  from  the  creature,  he  helped 
me  always  to  look  to  God.  That  was  often  upon  my  spirit  which 

* When  Mr.  Veitcb  was  removed  from  Morpeth  for  Edinburgh,  Bell  said,  “ This 
night  he  will  be  at  Edinburgh,  and  hanged  to-morrow,  according  to  his  demerits; 
and  how  could  such  a rebel  as  he,  who  did  so  and  so,  expect  to  escape  the  just  judg- 
ment of  God 

15 


170 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


David  said,  ‘ Let  him  alone,  God  hath  bidden  him,’  and  that  word 
in  the  Psalms,  ‘ Fret  not  thyself,  because  of  evil-doers.’  ” 

About  the  close  of  February,  or  the  beginning  of  March,  1679, 
a month  after  Mr.  Yeitch  was  carried  from  Morpeth  to  Scotland, 
and  when  he  was  lying  a prisoner  in  the  tolbooth  of  Edinburgh, 
she  set  out,  with  a heavy  heart,  for  Edinburgh,  through  a great 
storm  of  snow,  in  compliance  with  a letter  she  received  from 
him,  leaving  her  children  behind  her.  On  reaching  the  capital, 
she  was  much  relieved  on  finding  that  there  was  every  prospect 
of  his  being  set  at  liberty.  But  within  a few  days  he  was  put 
in  close  prison,  and  an  order  came  from  the  king  to  hand  him 
over  to  the  justiciary  court,  that  intimation  might  be  made  to  him 
of  the  sentence  of  death  for  high  treason,  which  had  been  pro- 
nounced against  him  in  his  absence  nearly  twelve  years  before. 
This  threw  her  into  a state  of  great  agitation  of  mind.  Provi- 
dence now  seemed  to  contradict  the  assurance  she  thouo^ht  she 
had  received  from  God,  that  Mr.  Veitch’s  life  would  be  preserved. 
But  by  faith  and  prayer,  her  usual  refuge  in  the  hour  of  trial,  her 
fears  were  gradually  allayed,  and  she  became  settled  in  her  pre- 
viously cherished  hope,  that  matters  would  be  so  ordered  as  to 
secure  his  personal  safety.  Nor  were  her  hopes  disappointed. 
About  the  close  of  July,  Mr.  Veitch  was  liberated,  by  ^irtue  of 
the  king’s  pardon,  indulgence,  and  indemnity.  “ When  the  news 
came  to  my  ears,”  says  she,  ‘‘  that  word  came  in  my  mind,  ‘ He 
hath  both  spoken  it,  and  himself  hath  done  it ; I will  walk  softly  in 
the  bitterness  of  my  spirit  all  my  days,’  Isa,  xxxviii.  15.”  She 
adds,  “We  came  both  home  in  peace  to  our  children,  where  we 
lived  at  Stantonhall,  three  miles  from  Morpeth,  in  Northumber- 
land, August,  1679.”*  This  sore  trial  had  now  come  to  an  end, 
but  it  did  not  leave  them  in  outward  circumstances  equally  favor- 
able with  those  in  which  it  found  them,  having  involved  them  in 
a heavy  debt.  Owing  to  the  forfeiture  of  Mr.  Yeitch,  and  to 
their  repeated  removals  from  one  place  to  another,  occasioned  by 
the  prelates  and  their  emissaries,  they  were  unable  to  defray  the 
expenses  incurred  in  this  business  without  borrowing  considera- 
ble sums  of  money  from  their  friends. 

In  addition  to  her  other  virtues,  Mrs.  Yeitch  was  distinguished 
for  kind-hearted  hospitality.  In  those  distressing  times,  when 
oppression  compelled  our  presbyterian  ancestors  to  “ wander  in 
deserts  and  in  mountains,  and  in  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth,” 
her  house,  both  during  the  period  of  her  residence  in  Scotland 
and  in  England,  “ was  a resting  and  refreshing  place  for  the  wan- 
* Memoirs  of  Mrs.  Veitcb,  p.  6.  She  says  1680,  by  mistake. 


MRS.  WILLIAM  VEITCH. 


171 


dering  and  weather-beaten  flock  of  Christ.”  The  same  woman- 
ly and  Christian  kindness,  which  prompted  her  cordially  to  re- 
ceive into  her  house  the  officers  of  the  covenanters  after  their 
defeat  at  Pentland  hills,  and  to  set  meat  and  drink  before  them, 
led  her  cordially  to  welcome,  and  kindly  to  entertain  those  friends 
and  acquaintances  who,  when  hunted  like  wild  beasts  by  tbeir 
persecutors,  sought  refreshment  and  a hiding-place  under  her 
roof ; and  it  was  her  observation  “ that  things  never  came  in  so 
plentifully,  nor  went  so  far,  as  when  they  had  most  strangers.” 

Among  those  who  betook  themselves  for  shelter  to  her  hospi- 
table dwelling  was  the  earl  of  Argyll,  who  suffered  in  1685.  At 
the  close  of  December,  1681,  that  nobleman,  having,  on  the  20th 
of  that  month,  escaped  from  the  castle  of  Edinburgh,  where  he 
lay  imprisoned  under  sentence  of  death,  directed  his  course  to 
Stantonhall,  with  the  view  of  being  conducted  on  his  way  to  Lon- 
don by  Mr.  Veitch,  whose  intrepidity,  shrewdness,  and  fidelity, 
particularly  recommended  him  for  such  a service.  On  Argyll’s 
arrival,  Mr.  Veitch  being  from  home,  Mrs.  Veitch  sent  some  of 
her  servants  or  friends  about  the  country  for  two  days  in  search 
of  him ; and  on  his  return,  she  consented  to  allow  him  to  do  his 
best  in  conducting  their  respected  noble  friend  in  safety  to  London. 

Some  weeks  after  Mr.  Veitch’s  arrival  in  the  English  capital, 
she  received  a letter  from  him,  informing  her  that  he  had  some 
thoughts  of  emigrating  to  Carolina,  a scheme  of  planting  a Scot- 
tish colony  there  having  been  formed  by  Sir  John  Cochrane  and 
several  others  ; that  he  had  the  prospect  of  good  encouragement 
in  a temporal  respect,  as  well  as  of  enioying  without  disturb- 
ance that  civil  and  religious  freedom  which  was  denied  them 
in  their  native  land ; and  that  she  might  be  making  prepara- 
tions for  leaving  Scotland.  To  this  proposal  she  at  first  felt  a 
strong  disinclination.  Driven  though  she  was  from  place  to 
place,  and  exposed  to  many  annoyances  and  hardships,  yet  to 
leave  the  land  of  her  fathers  at  her  advanced  period  of  life — for 
she  was  now  in  the  forty-fourth  year  of  her  age — and  more  es- 
pecially to  leave  a land  which,  like  Judea  to  the  Jews,  was  en- 
deared to  her  by  the  most  sacred  associations — wffiich  God  had 
honored  by  taking  into  covenant  with  himself,  and  to  encounter 
the  perils  of  the  ocean,  and  all  the  dangers  aud  difficulties  attend- 
ing a new  settlement  in  the  forests  of  America,  was  a step  to 
which  she  was  averse  from  sentiments  of  patriotism  as  well  as 
from  natural  feeling.  But,  submitting  her  will  to  the  will  of  God, 
she  at  last  became  less  disinclined,  and  stood  prepared  to  go 
wherever  he  in  his  providence  might  call  her.  “ I thought,” 


372 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


says  she,  “ in  my  old  days  I could  have  no  heart  for  such  a voyage, 
and  leave  these  covenanted  lands  ; but  at  length  I got  submis- 
sion to  my  God  and  was  content,  if  he  had  more  service  for  me 
and  mine  in  another  land ; for  I had  opened  my  mouth  and  given 
me  and  mine  to  him  and  his  service  when  and  where,  and  what 
way  he  pleased,  and  I could  not  go  back  ; but  if  I went  there,  I 
would  hang  my  harp  upon  the  willows  when  I remembered  Scot- 
land.” Obstacles  were  however,  thrown  in  the  way  of  this  plan- 
tation, so  that  it  was  never  formed ; and  she  had  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  Mr.  V eitch  return  home,  after  an  absence  of  about  half  a year. 

But  her  troubles  were  not  yet  brought  to  a termination.  A 
discovery  of  the  Ryehouse  plot,  in  which  Mr.  Veitch  had  been 
concerned  when  in  London,  having  been  made,*  a justice  of  the 
peace  came  to  the  house  to  apprehend  him.  He  narrowly  es- 
caped, and,  after  hiding  himself  for  some  weeks,  succeeded  in 
getting  over  to  Holland.  At  this  time  Mrs.  Veitch  fell  sick,  but 
was  not  long  in  recovering.  To  complete  the  education  of  her 
two  eldest  sons,  she  sent  them  over  to  their  father  in  Holland. 
While  at  sea  they  encountered  a severe  storm,  by  which  many 
lives  were  lost,  but  they  got  safely  to  land,  though  with  much 
difficulty.  Meanwhile  she  was  deprived,  by  death,  of  her  third 
son,  a boy  of  twelve  years  of  age.  Her  sorrow  under  this  be- 
reavement, though  aggravated  by  the  absence  of  his  father,  was 
mitigated  from  the  striking  evidence  afforded  by  the  dying  child, 
that  he  died  in  the  Lord.  Previously  thoughtless,  and  without 
any  appearance  of  religion,  he  seemed  to  her,  even  sometime 
after  his  illness  commenced,  not  to  be  duly  impressed  with  the 
awful  importance  of  death  and  eternity.  Anxious  and  trembling 
for  the  safety  of  his  soul,  she  was  earnest  in  prayer  that  God 
would  wean  his  young  and  tender  heart  from  the  world,  open  his 
eyes  to  see  the  glories  of  heaven,  and  discover  to  him  his  inter- 
est in  the  Savior.  Her  prayers  were  heard.  One  day,  calling 
her  to  his  bedside,  he  told  her  that  the  world  to  him  had  lost  its 
attractions,  and  that  he  was  resigned  to  die.  She  asked  the  rea- 
son of  this,  since  he  had  formerly  felt  a desire  to  live.  He  an- 
swered that  he  had  been  praying  and  giving  himself  to  Christ ; 
that  Christ  had  assured  him  of  the  delight  he  took  in  his  soul ; 
and  that  this  had  comforted  him.  Afterward  he  said,  “ Is  it  not 
a wonder  that  Jesus  Christ  should  have  died  for  sinners  ? Oh, 
this  is  a good  tale,  and  we  should  think  often  on  it !”  He  fre- 
quently repeated  these  words,  “ Whom  have  I in  heaven  but 
thee  ? and  there  is  none  upon  the  earth  that  I desire  beside  thee !” 

* It  was  discovered  in  June,  1683. 


MRS.  WILLIAM  VEITCH. 


173 


“ which,”  says  Mrs.  Veitch,  ‘‘  refreshed  me  more  than  if  he  had 
been  made  heir  of  a great  estate.”  When  engaged  in  prayer  a 
little  before  he  died,  he  prayed  for  his  absent  father  and  brothers, 
pleaded  that  his  brothers  and  sisters  might  be  animated  to  serve 
God  in  their  generation,  and  used  these  words,  ‘‘  Though  we  be 
far  separated  now,  I hope  we  shall  meet  in  glory.”  Also  calling 
for  his  brother  who  was  at  home,  and  his  sisters,  he  blessed 
them  all,  and  bade  them  farewell.  On  becoming  unable  to  speak, 
he  held  up  his  hand  while  his  mother  spoke  to  him  of  death  and 
heaven.  At  last  he  put  up  his  own  hand  and  closed  his  own  eyes, 
“ and  so,”  says  she,  “ we  parted  in  hope  of  a glorious  meeting.” 

The  deep  anxiety  which  Mrs.  Veitch  felt  for  the  spiritual  wel- 
fare of  her  children,  is  an  interesting  and  instructive  feature  of 
her  character.  Nor  was  this  anxiety  limited  to  those  seasons 
when  sickness  entered  her  dwelling,  and  threatened  to  remove 
by  death  the  objects  of  her  tenderest  aflection.  As  became 
a Christian  mother,  the  spiritual  interests  of  her  children 
were  to  her  a source  of  constant  solicitude.  Before  they 
were  born  she  devoted  them  to  God,  and  she  renewed  the 
dedication  at  their  baptism.  She  early  instructed  them  in 
the  things  of  God,  and  often  recommended  them  to  him  by 
prayer.  It  was  her  highest  ambition  to  see  them  living  the  life 
of  the  righteous,  and  to  engage  them  to  such  a life,  she  plied 
them  with  arguments  addressed  both  to  their  hopes  and  their 
fears,  to  their  understandings  and  their  hearts.  “ When  I was 
pouring  out  my  spirit  before  Him  in  prayer,”  she  says,  in  one 
part  of  her  diary,  ‘‘  He  brought  that  word  wonderfully  to  my 
mind,  where  the  angel  appeared  to  Cornelius  (Acts  x.)  and  bade 
him  send  for  Peter,  who  would  tell  him  words  by  which  he  and 
all  his  house  should  be  saved.  He  opened  mine  eyes  and  let 
me  see  that  which  I had  never  seen  before  so  clearly — that 

Christ’s  death  and  blood  cor^d  reach  a whole  family This 

gave  me  new  ground  to  plead  the  promise  for  me  and  mine,  and 
that  the  sign  I sought  from  him  might  be  accomplished,  that  they 
might  evidence  by  their  practice  they  were  his,  and  my  eyes 
might  see  it.”  In  another  part  of  the  same  document,  she  further 
says,  “ I charge  all  mine,  as  they  shall  answer  to  God  at  the 
great  day,  and  as  they  would  not  have  me  to  be  a witness  against 
them  in  that  day,  that  ye  covenant  yourselves  away  to  God  and 
his  service,  and  plead  the  good  of  this  promise*  in  particular, 

^ "I'he  promise  she  refers  to  is,  “ I will  be  your  God,  and  the  God  of  your  seed,’’ 
which  she  had  been  pleading  with  Gk)d,  and  which,  by  his  grace,  he  had  enabled 
her  to  embrace. 

15* 


174 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


every  one  of  yon  for  yourselves  ; ^or  all  I can  do  for  you  can  not 
merit  heaven  for  you  : for  with  the  heart  man  believes,  and  every 
man  is  saved  by  his  own  faith.  All  my  desire  is,  that  he  w^ould 
glorify  himself  by  redeeming  me  and  mine  from  hell  and  wrath, 
and  make  us  useful  in  our  generation  for  his  glory.  I thought  fit 
to  write  this  for  my  own  use  and  the  good  of  mine  ; and,  if  the 
Lord  should  take  me  from  them  by  death,  I hope  the  words  of  a 
dying  mother  shall  have  some  weight  upon  their  spirits.” 

During  the  time  of  Mr.  Yeitch’s  stay  in  Holland,  the  entries 
in  Mrs.  Veitch’s  diary  relate  chiefly  to  her  anxiety  about  him, 
and  to  her  distress  of  mind  on  account  of  the  condition  of  the 
church  in  Scotland,  whose  sufferings  seem  to  have  more  deeply 
affected  her  heart  than  even  her  own  personal  afflictions.  After 
relating  some  news  she  heard  from  Scotland,  and  her  exercise 
thereupon,  she  adds  : “ Within,  a little  misbelief  got  the  mastery 
of  me,  and  it  told  me  that  I need  not  expect  to  see  good  days. 
This  was  occasioned  by  the  apostasy  of  some,  and  the  persecutors 
being  permitted  to  run  all  down  before  them,  as  it  were.  I could 
sleep  little  or  none  for  several  nights.”  When  recording  the 
death  of  Charles  II.,  she  writes  as  follows  : “ When  I heard  it, 
I thought  Pharaoh  was  dead,  and  I would  go  to  God  and  beg  of 
him  that  he  would  spirit  a Moses  to  lead  forth  the  church  from 
under  her  hard  bondage  ;”  and,  after  referring  to  some  passages 
of  scripture  which  were  impressed  upon  her  mind,  she  observes 
that  she  was  thereby  made  to  hope  that  God  would  not  leave 
these  covenanted  lands,  especially  Scotland.” 

Meanwhile,  a considerable  number  of  English  and  Scottish 
refugees  in  Holland,  encouraged  by  friends  both  in  England  and 
Scotland,  were  forming  a scheme  for  overthrowing  by  force  the 
government  of  James  VIL,  who  was  resolutely  bent  on  establish- 
ing absolute  power  in  the  state  and  popery  in  the  church.  The 
duke  of  Monmouth  was  to  invade  England,  and  the  earl  of  Argyll, 
Scotland.  The  scheme  being  matured,  Mr.  Veitch,  who  was 
one  of  the  party,  was  sent  from  Holland  to  Northumberland  and 
the  Scottish  borders,  to  give  their  friends  information  of  their 
intentions  ; in  doing  which,  the  matter,  through  his  activity  in 
travelling  from  place  to  place,  and  through  the  zeal  of  numbers  in 
many  quarters  to  rise,  was  in  danger  of  being  divulged,  so  that  he 
he  was  forced  to  retire  to  the  mountains,  in  the  borders  near  Reeds- 
dale-head,  and  hide  himself,  nor  did  he  deem  it  safe  to  go  to  New- 
castle, whither  his  wife  had  removed  in  1684,  till  some  time  after 
the  execution  of  the  earl  of  Argyll  and  the  duke  of  Monmouth.* 
* The  earl  of  Argyll  was  taken  on  the  17th  of  Jane,  1685,  and  executed  on  the 


MRS,  WILLIAM  VEITCH. 


175 


On  the  arrival  of  Argyll  in  Scotland,  and  of  Monmouth  in  Eng- 
land, Mrs.  Yeitch  hoped  that,  perhaps,  the  time  had  now  como 
for  the  deliverance  of  the  church,  and  that  these  noblemen  might 
be  the  appointed  and  honored  instruments  of  effecting  it ; but,  that 
ill-conducted  undertaking  proving  unsuccessful,  these  agreeable 
expectations  were  not  realized,  and  she  felt  in  some  measure 
dispirited.  “ It  was  my  desire,”  she  says,  “ that  He  would  make 
good  his  word,  on  which  he  had  caused  me  to  hope  in  behalf  of 
the  church  ; for  I thought  possibly  this  might  be  the  time  of  build- 
ing his  house.  But  his  thoughts  are  not  like  mine  ; for  it  pleased 
Him  who  gives  no  account  of  his  matters,  to  let  both  these  great 
persons  fall  before  the  enemy,  which  put  me  to  pour  out  my  spirit 
l3efore  Him,  and  often  to  charge  my  soul  to  be  silent,  for  my  ill 
heart  and  misbelief  were  like  to  quarrel  with  him.”  The  ten- 
dency to  quarrel  with  God,  which  she  expresses  herself  as  feeling 
at  the  disastrous  issue  of  this  attempt,  need  occasion  little  sur- 
prise ; for  although  the  enlightened  friend  of  freedom  will  not 
now  regret  that  such  was  its  issue,  providence  having,  not  long 
after,  without  struggle  or  bloodshed,  brought  about  a more  eflec- 
tual  and  permanent  deliverance  than  could  have  been  expected 
by  its  success  ; yet,  at  that  time,  the  defeat  of  the  enterprise  was 
in  no  small  degree  discouraging  to  many  of  the  covenanters,  as 
it  seemed  to  demonstrate  the  hopelessness  of  any  efforts  to  throw 
off  that  oppressive  yoke,  under  which  their  powers  of  endurance 
were  well  nigh  exhausted,  and  even  threatened  to  rivet  the  chains 
of  slavery  and  popery  more  firmly  on  Britain  than  ever. 

Still  she  never  despaired  of  the  deliverance  of  the  church  and 
nation,  and  even  cherished  the  hope  of' living  to  see  it  accom- 
plished. On  one  occasion  after  the  fatal  result  of  this  insurrec- 
tion, at  a social  meeting  for  prayer  and  conference  held  in  her 
house  at  Newcastle,  where,  besides  her  husband,  there  were 
present  some  of  his  pious  Scottish  relations,  and  also  some  other 
good  people  of  the  town  of  Newcastle,  after  several  had  spoken 
in  an  almost  despairing  tone  of  the  state  of  matters,  she  expressed 
her  confident  hope  that  good  days  were  still  awaiting  Scotland. 
She  said  that  the  night  was  indeed  dark,  and  that  all  things  wore  a 
dismal  aspect,  but  that  she  was,  notwithstanding,  persuaded  that 
God  would  not  leave  his  own  work,  but  from  an  unexpected 
quarter  would  raise  up  instruments  to  build  his  house,  to  restore 
the  ark  and  the  glory,  and  bring  home  his  captives.  She  added, 
moreover,  that  she  felt  assured  she  would  see  presbytery  estab- 

30th  of  that  moiitli.  The  duke  of  Monmouth  was  taken  on  the  8th  of  July,  1685i 
and  executed  on  the  15tli  of  that  month. 


176 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


lished,  and  her  husband  a settled  minister  in  the  church  of  Scot- 
land, before  she  died.  Though  they  loved  the  thing,”  says  Mr. 
Veitch,  “ yet  they  little  believed  it  in  the  time  ; but  when  it  came 
to  pass,  they  both  thought  and  talked  much  of  it.”  From  the 
danger  he  was  in  of  being  apprehended,  Mr.  Veitch  only  visited 
her  occasionally  from  the  time  he  came  from  Holland,  early  in 
1685,  till  his  settlement  as  a minister  at  Beverley,  near  one  hun- 
dred miles  south  from  Newcastle,  after  King  James’s  declaration 
for  liberty  of  conscience  in  England,  when,  with  her  family,  she 
removed  to  that  part  of  the  country. 

When  Mr.  Veitch  was  called  to  Beverley,  she  felt  some  re- 
luctance to  settle  in  that  place,  from  the  strong  desire  she  had  to 
see  the  restoration  of  the  church  to  prosperity  in  the  land  of  her 
birth,  and  that  her  husband  might  in  some  degree  be  instrumental 
in  promoting  it  there  ; though,  at  last,  she  submitted  her  inclina- 
tions to  the  determinations  of  Providence,  if  he  could  be  more 
useful  in  that  place  than  in  another.  But  when,  after  having 
preached  for  six  or  seven  months  in  Beverley,  with  much  suc- 
cess, he  received  pressing  invitations  to  return  to  Scotland, 
where  King  James’s  toleration  had  been  accepted,  she  was  ex- 
tremely desirous  that  he  should  comply  with  these  invitations, 
though  the  people  of  Beverley  had  sent  for  her,  given  her  good 
offers,  and  used  many  arguments  to  persuade  her  and  him  to 
stay  with  them.  Her  heart,”  says  Mr.  Veitch,  “ was  for  her 
native  country,  and  she  longed  to  see  that  in  the  performance 
which  she  had  promised  herself  formerly  in  her  duties  and  wrest- 
ling with  God,  and  had  expressed  her  assurance  thereof.”  She, 
however,  apprehended  that  the  design  in  view,  in  the  toleration 
extended  to  Scotland,  as  well  as  in  that  granted  to  England,  was 
under  the  disguise  of  benefiting  dissenters,  to  afford  relief  to 
papists,  and  ultimately  to  pave  the  way  for  the  establishment  of 
popery.  ‘‘  Considering  it  came  from  a popish  king,”  she  writes, 
“ made  me  fear  what  the  issue  might  be.” 

On  the  compliance  of  Mr.  Veitch  with  a call  he  received  from 
the  united  parishes  of  Oxnam,  Crailing,  Eckford,  Linton,  More- 
battle,  and  Hownam,  to  preach  to  them,  under  King  James’s  third 
indulgence,  at  Whittonhall,  which  was  almost  the  centre  of  these 
parishes,*  she  returned  with  great  joy  to  her  native  land.  “ But,” 
says  she,  “ His  promise  to  me  for  His  church  in  Scotland,  was 
not  yet  altogether  performed.  I was  like  Haman  (Esther  v.  13), 
all  availed  me  little  so  long  as  I saw  popery  owned  by  authority. 
I thought  that  then  the  ark  was  still  in  the  house  of  Obededom ; 

* He  entered  on  this  charge  in  April,  1688. 


MRS.  WILLIAM  VEITCH. 


177 


it  was  my  desire  He  would  spirit  some  to  bring  it  to  Jerusalem.” 
She  had  not,  however,  been  much  more  than  half  a year  in  Scot- 
land, when  James  YIL,  was  driven  from  his  throne,  and  William, 
prince  of  Orange,  was  called  to  fill  it,  a revolution  which,  by  more 
narrowly  circumscribing  and  more  exactly  defining  the  preroga- 
tives of  the  crown  than  had  been  done  in  any  former  period  of 
the  history  of  our  country,  conferred  on  the  subjects  a degree  of 
liberty  they  never  before  had  enjoyed,  defeated  the  design  of 
restoring  popery,  overthrew  prelacy  in  Scotland,  and  brought  to 
a termination  the  sufferings  of  the  presbyterians  for  conscience’ 
sake. 

After  the  revolution  she  resided  first  in  Peebles,  and  next  in 
Dumfries,  in  which  places  Mr.  Veitch  was  successively  minister. 
In  the  last  of  these  towns  she  died  in  May,  1722,  at  the  advanced 
age  of  eighty -four.  Mr.  Veitch  died  on  the  day  after  her  death, 
having  completed  his  eighty-second  year.  Mr.  James  Guthrie, 
minister  of  Irongray,  in  a letter  to  Mr.  James  Stirling,  minister 
of  Barony,  Glasgow,  dated  May  9,  1722,  says,  “ Your  honest  old 
friend,  Mr.  Veitch,  is  now  gone  to  heaven,  for  he  died  yesterday 
morning,  and  his  good  wife  departed  this  life  on  Friday  last,  so 
that  they  who  lived  long  together  on  earth  are  now  goi)^  to  glory, 
I may  say,  together  also Mr.  Veitch,  for  some  months  be- 

fore his  death,  wanted  the  use  of  his  tongue,  right  arm  and  leg, 
and  so  lay  almost  as  one  dead  long  before  he  gave  up  the  ghost.”t 
This  venerable  pair  had  been  married  fifty-eight  years,  and  they 
were  both  interred  on  the  same  day,  in  the  old  church  of  Dumfries. 

We  shall  conclude  this  sketch  with  a few  particulars  relative 
to  Mr?.  Veitch’s  children.  She  had  five  sons  and  five  daugh- 
ters. Of  these,  four  died  young. 

Mary,  her  first  child,  was  born  on  the  23d  of  September,  1665, 
at  the  Westhills  of  Dunsyre,  died  March  9,  1666,  and  was  buried 
at  Dunsyre  kirk. 

William,  her  second  child,  was  born  on  the  2d  of  April,  1667, 
at  the  Westhills  of  Dunsyre.  Samuel,  her  third  child,  was  born 
on  the  9th  of  December,  1668,  at  Edinburgh,  and  baptized  on  the 
13th  by  Mr.  John  Blackadder.  These  two  sons  she  had  devoted 
to  the  Christian  ministry,  and  sent  to  Holland  to  prosecute  their 
studies  at  the  university  of  Utrecht ; but  the  young  men  expressed 
their  decided  preference  for  the  military  profession,  and,  when 
the  prince  of  Orange  came  over  to  England,  in  1688,  they  held 
commissions  under  him.  Both  of  them  served  in  Flanders 
during  the  war  with  France,  which  broke  out  after  the  Revolu- 
t Letters  to  Wodrow,  vol.  x.,  4to,  no.  172,  MSS.  in  Advocates’  Library. 


178 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


tion.  vWilliam  was  a lieutenant  in  Angus’s,  or  the  Cameronian 
regiment,  and  was  wounded,  in  1699,  at  the  battle  of  Steinkirk. 
He  was  shot  through  the  left  cheek,  an  inch  below  the  eye,  and 
the  ball  falling  into  his  mouth,  he  spat  it  out.  The  two  brothers 
afterward  went  out  as  captains  of  the  forces  of  the  Scottish  colo- 
ny, which  it  was  intended  to  settle  at  the  isthmus  of  Darien. 
But  the  settlement  came  to  a disastrous  termination.  Captain 
William  died  at  sea  on  returning  home  after  the  evacuation.  Cap- 
tain Samuel  ultimately  settled  at  New  York,  where  he  married  a 
granddaughter  of  Mr.  John  Livingstone,  minister  of  Ancrum,  by 
whom  he  had  a daughter  called  Aleda,  who  married  an  American 
gentleman  of  the  name  of  Pinkrie,  near  Philadelphia. 

James,  her  fourth  child,  was  born  at  Edinburgh  on  the  9th  of 
March,  1671,  died  at  Arnistoum,  on  the  10th  of  April,  1672, 
and  was  buried  in  the  church-yard  of  Temple,  on  the  12th  of  that 
month. 

John,  her  fifth  child,  was  born  at  Falalies,  in  the  parish  of 
Pothbury,  in  Northumberland,  on  the  19th  of  July,  1672  ; died  at 
Stantonhall  about  Martinmas,  1684,  and  was  buried  at  Nether 
Wilton,  four  miles  from  Morpeth.  This  is  the  boy  of  whose 
death  an  account  has  previously  been  given.* 

Elizabeth,  her  sixth  child,  was  born  at  Harnam,  in  the  parish 
of  Bolam,  in  Northumberland,  on  the  20th  of  May,  1674.  She 
was  married  to  David  McCulloch,  of  Ardwell,  on  the  7th  of 
June,  1710,  at  Dumfries. 

Ebenezer,  her  seventh  child,  was  born  at  Harnam,  on  the  16th 
of  March,  1676.  Devoting  himself  to  the  Christian  ministry,  he 
studied  divinity  under  the  learned  Mr.  George  Campbell,  profes- 
sor of  theology  in  the  college  of  Edinburgh.  After  being  licensed, 
he  was  appointed  sabbath  morning  lecturer  in  the  Tron  church, 
upon  Mr.  M‘ Alla’s  mortification.  This  situation  he  left  in  May, 
1703,  having  received  a call  to  be  minister  at  Ayr,  to  which 
charge  he  was  ordained  on  the  12th  of  that  month.  He  soon 
after  married  Margaret,  daughter  of  the  venerable  Mr.  Patrick 
Warner,  minister  of  Irvine,  a young  lady  of  great  personal  attrac- 
tions. But  he  did  not  long  survive.  When  at  Edinburgh  attend- 
ing the  commission,  in  December,  1706,  he  was  seized  with  a 
dangerous  sickness,  and  died  on  the  13th  of  that  month.  He 
was  a young  man  of  uncommon  piety,  and  his  death  was  tri- 
umphant. Calling  his  wife  to  his  bedside,  he  told  her  he  would 
give  her  his  parting  kiss,  and  recommended  her  to  his  God, 
“ who,”  he  said,  “ has  been  all  in  all  to  me  and  when  she  asked 
^ See  page  173. 


MRS.  WILLIAM  VEITCH. 


179 


him  whether  he  would  not  desire  to  live  with  her,  and  serve  God 
some  time  longer  in  the  church  below,  he  answered  in  the  nega- 
tive. Then  calling  out  to  some  of  the  ministers  who  were  in  the 
room  with  him,  he  said,  “Ye  passengers  for  glory,  how  near, 
think  you,  am  I to  the  New  Jerusalem?”  One  of  them  answer- 
ed, “ Not  far,  sir  !”  He  rejoined,  “ I’ll  wait  and  climb  until  I be 
up  among  that  innumerable  company  of  angels,  and  the  spirits  of 
just  men  made  perfect.”  They  removed  his  wife  out  of  the 
room ; but  when  he  was  just  expiring,  she  rushed  in  to  the  bed- 
side. Waving  with  his  hand,  he  said,  “ No  more  converse  with 
the  creature,  I never,  never  will  look  back  again  ;”  and  immedi- 
ately breathed  out  his  spirit  into  the  hands  of  his  redeeming  God. 
His  mother,  who  gives  this  account  in  her  diary,  adds,  “ It  need 
not  be  a surprisal  to  me,  for  near  a year  before  his  death,  he 
preached  upon  these  words,  ‘ Remember,  Lord,  how  short  my 
time  is  and  when  he  was  at  home  in  his  family  in  Ayr,  in 
prayer  he  would  be  so  transported  with  the  joys  of  heaven,  as  if 
he  would  have  flown  away ; and  his  young  wife*  would  often  say 
to  him,  it  was  a terror  to  her  to  hear  him  so  much  upon  death ; 
but  he  said  it  was  none  to  him ; so  he  lived  desired,  and  died 
lamented.” 

Sarah,  her  eighth  child,  and  third  daughter,  was  born  at  Stan- 
tonhall,  in  the  parish  of  Longhorsly,  in  Northumberland,  on  the 
7th  of  November,  1677.  She  became  the  wife  of  James  Young, 
of  Guiliehill,  from  whom,  says  Dr.  M^Crie,  writing ' in  1825, 
Samuel  Denholm  Young,  Esq.,  of  Guiliehill,  is  descended. 

Agnes,  her  ninth  child,  and  fourth  daughter,  was  born  at  Stan- 
tonhall,  on  the  20th  of  January,  1680.  She  married  Mr.  John 
Somerville,  minister  of  Caerlaverock  ; to  whom  she  had  six  chil- 

” This  lady  was  afterward  maiTied  to  Mr.  Robert  Wodrow,  minister  of  East- 
wood,  the  indefatigable  historian  of  the  sufferings  of  the  church  of  Scotland.  The 
marriage  ring  presented  to  her  by  both  her  first  and  second  husband  are  still  pre- 
served as  family  relics.  “ How  it  has  so  happened/’  says  a writer  in  the  Edinburgh 
Christian  Instructor,  for  December,  1825,  “ we  shall  not  at  present  tell ; but  so  it  is, 
that  we  have,  while  writing  this  article,  actually  on  our  forefinger,  the  identical  ring 
which  Mr.  Ebenezer  Veitch  presented  to  his  wife,  previous  to  marriage.  It  is  a 
plain  gold  one,  with  small  ivory  beads  around  its  outer  edge,  and  within  is  this 
Latin  inscription,  which  we  have  some  difficulty  in  translating  intelligibly^  We 
give  it  verbatim  et  literatim  as  we  see  it,  and  leave  our  readers  to  make  out  what 
they  can  of  it,  ‘ Ebenezer,  et  Jehovah,  FeitchJ  The  sense  which  we  conjecture  is 
not  very  luminously  conveyed,  but  it  seems  to  savor  of  the  eminent  piety  of  its  au- 
thor. The  ring  presented  to  the  same  lady  by  Mr.  Wodrow,  her  second  husband,  is 
also  now  before  us,  a.nd  its  moral  is  more  intelligible.  The  device  is  a jlaming  heait 
in  the  centre,  with  a hand  on  the  one  side  giving,  and  another  on  the  other  side  re- 
ceiving; and  this  plain  English  motto:  give  you  mine,  and  grasp  at  yours 

The  writer  adds,  " From  these  specimens,  we  see  that  the  clerical  gentlemen  of  our 
olden  times,  while  they  were  not  destitute  of  learning,  were  not  devoid  of  the  tender 
affections.” 


180 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


dren,  one  son  and  daughters.  Mr.  Charles  Sheriff,  the  dumb 
miniature  painter,  was  her  grandson.  She  died  of  her  seventh 
child,  not  brought  to  bed,  on  the  14th  of  August,  1712  ; and  when 
medical  assistance  failed  to  do  her  any  good,  she  said,  “ Now  I 
see  that  God  calls  me  to  die  and  leave  this  world,  and  all  my 
relations,  w^hich  I am  most  willing  to  do.”  Then  taking  fare- 
well, with  the  greatest  composure  and  deliberation,  of  her  pa- 
rents, children,  servants,  and  husband,  leaving  her  blessing  to 
every  one  present,  and  to  all  her  friends  who  were  absent,  with 
her  eyes  lifted  up  to  heaven,  she  cried,  “ O my  beloved ! be  thou 
as  a roe  and  as  a young  hart  upon  the  mountains  of  divisions.” 
Then  she  begged  that  her  friends  present  would  unite  in  praying 
that  God  would  mitigate  her  sufferings  in  passing  through  the 
dark  valley,  and  land  her  in  her  wished-for  port.  Before  prayer 
was  ended,  her  pain  was  abated,  and  closing  her  eyes,  a little 
after,  with  her  own  hand,  she  died  with  great  tranquillity. 

Janet,  her  tenth  child,  and  fifth  daughter,  was  born  on  the  30th 
of  January,  1682,  at  Stantonhall,  her  father  being  then  at  Lon- 
don. She  died  on  sabbath,  the  26th  of  March,  1693,  near  eight 
o’clock  at  night,  at  Peebles.  Before  her  death,  her  father  hav- 
ing been  engaged  in  prayer,  she  said,  “ Now  I am  content  to 
leave  you  all,”  and  inquired  at  her  mother  whether  they  should 
know  one  another  in  heaven  ? Her  mother  told  her  she  thought 
they  w^ould,  and  asked  her  whether  she  thought  she  would  win 
there ; to  which  she  answered,  “ I hope  I shall.”  She  died 
without  any  pain  ; and  with  as  much  composure  as  if  she  had 
been  going  to  see  a friend,  kissing  her  father,  mother,  and  sis- 
ters, and  bidding  them  all  farewell. 


MRS.  JOHN  LIVINGSTONE,  &c. 


181 


MRS.  JOHN  LIVINGSTONE,  &c. 

Mrs.  Livingstone,  whose  maiden  name  was  Janet  Fleming, 
was  the  eldest  daughter  of  Bartholomew  Fleming,  merchant  in 
Edinburgh,  by  his  wife  Marion  Hamilton.  She  was  married, 
June  23,  1635,  to  the  famous  Mr.  John  Livingstone,  afterward 
minister  of  Ancruin,  by  his  father,  in  the  West  church  of  Edin- 
burgh.* In  the  following  notices  respecting  this  lady,  it  is  not 
our  intention  to  trace  the  whole  of  her  history,  but  merely  to 
select  a single,  chapter  from  her  life,  relating  to  matters  which 
fell  out  in  the  year  1674,  when  she  was  considerably  advanced 
in  years.  Previous  to  this  period,  she  had  experienced  many 
vicissitudes  and  trials,,  having  shared  in  the  hardships  endured 
by  Mr.  Livingstone,  in  the  cause  of  nonconformity,  both  in  Ireland 
and  in  Scotland ; and  wdien,  on  his  being  banished  his  majesty’s 
dominions,  by  the  privy  council,  for  his  fidelity  to  the  same 
cause,  he  had  embarked  for  Hplland  in  the  beginning  of  April, 
1663,  she  followed  him  in  December  that  year,  taking  with  her 
two  of  her  children,  and  leaving  the  other  five  in  Scotland.  She 
remained  in  Holland  till  the  death  of  Mr.  Livingstone,  which 
took  place  in  August,  1672,  when  she  returned  to  Scotland.  Mr. 
Robert  M^Ward,  writing  from  Rotterdam  to  Lady  Kenmure,  says  : 
“ Madam,  it’s  like  you  will  look  for  some  account  of  the  death 
of  that  great  man  of  God,  non-such  Mr.  Livingstone,  which  I 
would  have  given  you,,  but  your  ladyship  will  have  it  more  per- 
fectly from  his  worthy  relict,  by  whom  you  will  be  waited  upon.”t 

On  her  return  to  Scotland,  she  took  up  her  residence  in  Edin- 
burgh, where  two  of  her  sons  were  resident.  It  was  within  less 
than  two  years  after  her  return,  that  she  and  several  other  pres- 
byterian  ladies  were  concerned  in  those  transactions  which  we 
now  purpose  to  rehearse.  Our  narrative  relates  to  a petition  which 
she  and  these  ladies  drew  up  and  presented  to  the  lords  of  his 
majesty’s  privy  council,  praying  for  liberty  to  enjoy  undisturbed 
the  preaching  of  the  gospel  by  the  nonconforming  ministers  ; and 
to  the  proceedings  of  the  privy  council  against  these  ladies  on 
that  account.  This  will  furnish  a good  illustration  of  the  patri- 
otic interest  taken  by  the  ladies  of  that  period  in  the  cause  of 
suffering  nonconformity,  as  well  as  of  the  determination  of  tho 
government  to  ride  rough-shod  over  every  attempt  to  obtain  a 
mitigation  or  redress  of  grievances. 

’*■  Livingstone's  Life  written  by  Himself,  t Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  Iviii.,  fob,  No.  ^5 

16 


1S2 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


The  state  of  matters  ia  which  this  petition  originated  may  be 
briefly  described.  For  about  three  months  in  the  early  part  of 
the  year  1674,  an  almost  entire  cessation  from  persecution  took 
place.  During  this  respite,  which  was  called  “ the  Blink,”  the  pro- 
scribed ministers  fearing  that  it  would  be  of  short  duration,  preached 
both  in  private  houses  and  in  the  flelds  with  unremitting  and 
ardent  zeal.  In  the  west,  field-meetings  Avere  not  of  very  fre- 
quent occurrence,  the  indulgence  of  1672,  which  extended  chiefly 
to  that  part  of  the  country,  rendering  such  meetings  unnecessary  ; 
but  in  Fifeshire,  Perthshire,  Stirlingshire,  Dumbartonshire,  Lo- 
thian, Merse,  Teviotdale,  Annandale,  Nithsdale,  and  other  places, 
to  which  the  indulgence  did  not  extend,  or  where  it  was  more 
limited  in  its  operation,  they  were  very  frequently  held  in  mount- 
ains, mosses,  and  moors,  and  attended  by  immense  multitudes. 
This  liberty  was  owing,  not  to  any  change  in  the -spirit  or  policy 
of  the  government,  but  solely  to  political  causes,  among  which 
the  chief  cause  was  the  animosities  then  existing  between  the 
different  parties  of  statesmen.  Lauderdale,  Avho  had  now  for  a 
considerable  time  been  a privy  counsellor  in  England,  and  the 
chief  manager  of  affairs  in  Scotland,  had,  by  his  intolerable  arro- 
gance, and  more  especially  by  his  violent  and  tyrannical  admin- 
istration, created  a powerful  opposition  against  him,  both  in  Eng- 
land and  in  Scotland.  So  strong  was  the  faction  against  him  in 
Scotland,  which  was  headed  by  the  duke  of  Hamilton,  that  when 
he  came  down  as  his  majesty’s  commissioner  to  hold  the  Scottish 
parliament,  Avhich  was  to  meet  in  March,  1674,  finding  it  would 
be  difficult  or  impossible  for  him  to  maintain  his  ground  in  it,  he 
adjourned  it  to  October,  but  never  after  ventured  upon  another 
Scottish  parliament. 

To  this  state  of  political  parties  in  Scotland  we  are  mainly  to 
trace  the  tranquillity  enjoyed  durin'g  “ the  Blink.”  Lauderdale 
secretly  encouraged  conventicles,  promising  the  persecuted  min- 
isters ample  and  unrestrained  liberty,  that  he  might  blame  his 
opponents  to  the  king,  as  encouragers  of  these  “ seminaries  of 
rebellion  ;”  and  on  the  other  hand  his  opponents  connived  at  such 
meetings,  that  they  might  impute  the  prevalence  of  them  to  him. 
But  matters  changed  upon  a sudden  : the  tempest  of  persecution 
again  rose  into  fury.  On  his  return  to  London,  after  the  adjourn- 
ment of  the  Scottish  parliament,  Lauderdale,  who,  notwithstand- 
ing the  opposition  made  to  him  both  in  England  and  in  Scotland, 
retained  the  royal  favor,  laid  the  blame  of  the  conventicles  held 
in  Scotland  upon  his  opponents.  The  Scottish  privy  council 
was  remodelled  according  to  his  wishes,  the  most  of  his  enemies 


MRS.  JOHN  LIVINGSTONE,  &c. 


183 


being  kept  out,  and  others  friendly  to  him  put  in  their  places  ; 
and  by  his  advice,  letters  from  the  king  to  the  council  followed 
each  other  in  succession,  requiring  them  to  adopt  every  means 
for  suppressing  conventicles.  On  the  4th  of  June,  1674,  when 
the  new  council  met  for  the  first  time,  a letter  from  his  majesty, 
dated  May  19th,  was  read,  complaining  that  not  only  private  but 
also  field  conventicles  were  held,  and  that  the  pulpits  of  the  reg- 
ular ministers  were  invaded  in  some  places  ; and  requiring  the 
council  to  use  their  utmost  endeavors  for  apprehending  and  trying 
field-preachers,  invaders  of  pulpits,  and  such  heritors  as  were 
ringleaders  at  field  conventicles  and  in  pulpit  invasions,  calling 
in  the  standing  forces  and  militia  to  their  aid. 

Such  were  the  circumstances  which  gave  rise  to  this  petition. 
Mrs.  Livingstone  and  a considerable  number  of  other  presbyte- 
rian  ladies  in  Edinburgh,  especially  the  wives  and  widows  of 
ejected  nonconforming  ministers,  and  some  ladies  of  rank,  were 
in  no  small  degree  distressed  at  the  threatened  prospect  of  re- 
newed and  aggravated  persecution.  Little  could  they  do  to  prevent 
the  impending  calamity.  Prayer  to  God  was  almost  their  only  re- 
maining resource.  But  necessity  is  prolific  in  suggesting  expedi- 
ents, and  it  occurred  to  some  of  them  that,  as  it  was  dangerous 
for  ministers  to  petition  the  privy  council  for  the  redress  of  their 
grievances,  imprisonment  being  the  only  answer  likely  to  be 
made,  they  themselves  might  petition  the  council  for  the  undis- 
turbed enjoyment  of  the  gospel  preached  by  the  nonconforming 
ministers.  Mrs.  Livingstone,  it  is  not  improbable,  was  the  per- 
son by  whom  this  expedient  was  suggested.  Precedents  for  such 
a course,  of  which  she  was  not  ignorant,  were  not  wanting  in  the 
history  of  the  church  of  Scotland  in  former  days.  She  well 
knew  that  such  a method  had  been  adopted  in  similar  circum- 
stances, and  with  perfect  success,  by  a worthy  relative  of  her 
own,  her  aunt  Barbara  Hamilton,*  and  other  religious  matrons 
of  Edinburgh.  When  Robert  Blair  and  other  nonconforming 
ministers,  who  had  been  deposed  by  the  bishops  of  Ireland  for 
nonconformity,  had  come  over  to  Scotland  in  1637,  and  when 
Mr.  Blair  was  threatened  with  still  harsher  treatment  from  the 
Scottish  prelates,  these  ladies  presented  to  the  privy  council  a 
petition,  praying  that  he  and  other  ministers  similarly  situated 

* Barbara  Hamilton  was  Mrs.  Livingstone’s  motlier’s  sister,  and  the  wife  of  Mr. 
John  Mein,  merchant-burgess,  Edinburgh.  Two  of  Samuel  Rutherford’s  letters  are 
addressed  to  this  lady.  She  died  in  September,  1654  ; and  her  husband,  Mr.  Mein, 
on  the  .30th  of  July  'that  same  year.  Among  the  debts  owing  to  them  at  their  de- 
cease is,  “ By  my  Lady  Lome,  xxii  lb.  By  my  Lady  Kenmure,  xii  lb.  2 shillings.'' 
— Register  of  Confirmed  Testaments  in  her  Majesty's  Register  House,  Edinburgh, 


184 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


might  have  liberty  to  preach  the  gospel  publicly  wherever  they 
were  called  or  had  opportunity  to  do  so  ; and  they  at  once  ob- 
tained their  request.*  Guided  by  such  a laudable  example,  she 
and  the  rest  of  these  ladies  made  up  their  mind  to  make  the 
attempt,  whatever  might  be  its  success  ; and  accordingly,  without 
the  aid  of  any  of  their  ministers,  or  of  any  man,  they  themselves 
drew  up  a petition  to  be  presented  to  the  privy  council.  The 
manner  in  which  they  were  to  transmit  it  was  somewhat  similar 
to  the  manner  in  which  Barbara  Hamilton  and  her  associates 
presented  their  petition  to  the  privy  council  in  behalf  of  Robert 
Blair  and  the  other  nonconforming  ministers  of  their  time. 

On  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  June,  the  day  on  which  the  first 
meeting  of  the  new  council  was  to  be  held,  all  the  ladies  friendly 
to  the  petition  were  to  assemble  in  the  parliament  close,  some 
time  before  the  members  of  the  council  came  up  to  the  meeting, 
Mrs.  Livingstone,  in  consideration  either  of  her  advanced  years, 
or  of  her  superior  address,  or  of  both,  was  appointed  to  present 
the  petition  to  the  lord-chancellor,  the  earl  of  Rothes,  and  to  re- 
quest him  to  transmit  it  to  the  council;  while  fourteen  other  la- 
dies, mostly  ministers’  widows,  were  engaged  each  to  present  a 
copy  to  some  one  of  the  principal  counsellors,  as  they  came  up 

^ “ That  worthy  wife  B.  H.  [Barbara  Hajnilton]  brings  to  Mr.  Blair  paper,  pen, 
and  ink,  saying,  ‘ Wnte  a supplication  to  the  secret  council,  and  humbly  petition 
them  in  your  own  name,  and  in  the  name  and  behalf  of  others  in  your  condition,  for 
liberty  to  preach  the  gospel  publicly,  wherever  ye  get  a call  from  honest  ministers 
or  people,  and  we  that  are -wives  shall  put  it  in  the  treasurer’s  hand  as  he  goes  in 
to  the  council.’  W hereunto  Mr.  Blair  condescended,  and  delivers  his  supplication, 
written  with  his  own  hand,  to  her.  The  first  council-day  immediately  following, 
there  convenes  a great  number  of  the  religious  matrons  in  Edinburgh,  drawn  up  as 
a guard,  from  die  council-house  door  to  the  street.  They  agreed  to  put  the  suppli- 
cation in  the  haiid  of  the  oldest  matron,  Alison  Cockbuim,  relict  of  Mr.  Archibald 
Row'.  When  the  treasurer,  Traquair,  perceived  the  old  woman  presenting  to  him  a 
paper,  suspecting  that  it  w^as  sometliing  that  would  not  relish  with  the  council,  he 
did  put  her  by,  and  goes  quickly  from  her  toward  the  council-house  door which 
being  perceived  by  Barbara  Hamilton,  she  appeal's  and  pulls  the  paper  out  of  the 
old  weak  woman’s  hand,  and  coming  up  to  Traquair,  did  with  her  strong  arm  arid 
big  hand  fast  grip  his  gardie  [that  is,  arm],  saying,  ‘ Stand,  my  lord,  in  Christ’s 
name,  I charge  you,  till  I speak  to  you.’  He,  looking  back,  replies,  ‘ Good  woman, 
wdiat  would  you  say  to  me  V — ‘ There  is,’  said  she,  ‘ a humble  supplication  of  Mr. 
Blair’.s.  All  that  he  petitions  for  is,  that  he  may  have  liberty  to  preach  the  gospel, 
&c.  I charge  you  to  befriend  the  matter,  as  you  would  expect  God  to  befriend  you 
in  your  distress,  and  at  your  death  !’  He  replied,  ‘ I shall  do  my  endeavor,  and  what 
I can  in  it.’  Mr.  Blair’s  supplication  was  gi’anted  by  the  secret  council;  and  so  he 
had  liberty,  not  only  to  stay  in  Scotland,  but  to  preach  the  gospel  to  any  congrega- 
tion where  he  got  an  orderly  call.” — (Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  pp.  153, 154.)  Row 
adds  : By  this  nairation  you  may  perceive  how  the  Lord,  in  this  time,  stirred  up 
and  animated  the  spiidts,  not  only  of  men,  especially  of  the  nobles,  who  were  mag- 
nates et  primores  regni,  and  of  the  ministers  of  the  gospel,  but  even  of  holy  and  reli- 
gious w'omen,  who,  as  they  first  opposed  the  reading  of  that  black  service-book,  July 
23, 1637,  so  the  Lord  made  them  instrumental  in  many  good  affairs  for  the  promoting 
of  the  blessed  Reformation.” 


MRS.  JOHN  LIVINGSTONE,  &c. 


185 


to  the  council-house.  According  to  this  arrangement,  a large 
number  of  ladies*  convened  in  the  parliament  close  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  4th  of  June,  waiting  the  arrival  of  the  counsellors. 
At  length  the  chancellor’s  coach  comes  up  first ; and  v/hen  he 
and  Archbishop  Sharp,  who  had  been  riding  with  him  in  the 
coach,  alighted,  Mrs.  Livingstone  was  ready  to  accost  him,  and 
the  crowd,  eager  to  witness  the  scene,  gathered  to  the  spot. 
Sharp,  who  seems  to  have  known  nothing  of  the  matter  before- 
hand, seized  with  a guilty  terror,  kept  close  to  the  chancellor’s 
back,!  imagining,  as  was  not  unnatural  for  a man  to  do  who  had 
now  spent  many  years  in  persecuting  his  old  friends,  the  presby- 
terians,  and  who  had  incurred  very  general  odium,  that  the  ob- 
ject of  these  ladies,  whom  he  had  often  maligned  as  fanatics, 
and  even  by  still  worse  names,j:  was  to  murder  him.  But  his 
alarm  was  groundless  ; for  though  some  of  them,  becoming  ex- 
cited at  the  very  sight  of  the  man  with  whom  was  associated,  in 
their  minds,  all  the  infamy  of  the  traitor  and  the  persecutor,  called 
him  Judas  and  traitor  ; and  one  of  them  still  bolder  than  the  rest, 
laid  her  hand  upon  his  neck,  and  told  him  that  ere  all  was  done 
that  neck  would  pay  for  it ; there  was  no  intention  or  attempt  to 
do  him  any  bodily  harm.||  While  these  things  are  going  on, 
Mrs.  Livingstone  addressed  herself  to  the  chancellor,  informing 
him  of  the  object  of  so  many  females  in  assembling  together,  and 
presenting  to  him  the  petition,  which  she  entreated  him  to  lay 
before  the  honorable  members  of  his  majesty’s  privy  council. 

The  chancellor,  respectfully  taking  off  his  hat,  graciously  re- 
ceived the  petition  from  Mrs.  Livingstone,  and  read  it  on  the 
spot.  After  he  had  read  it,  and  had  talked  a short  time  with 
some  of  the  other  ladies,  jesting  with  them  according  to  his  fa- 

The  number,  according  to  Row,  was  one  hundred  and  nine  (Life  of  Robert 
Blair,  p.  539)  ; but,  as  according  to  Kirkton,  they  “ filled  the  whole  parliament  close,” 
the  number  must  have  been  much  greater. — History  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  p.  345. 

t “ When  the  counsellors  came  out  of  their  coaches,  Sharp  (who  was  asflyed  as  a 
fox)  clave  close  to  the  chancellor’s  back.” — Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  539. 

+ Female  preebyterians  were  the  objects  of  Sharp’s  peculiar  hatred.  When,  in 
1664,  the  privy  council  confined  William  Gordon  of  Earlston,  to  the  town  of  Edin- 
burgh, for  keeping  conventicles  and  not  attending  his  own  parish  church,  Sharp,  who 
had  been  at  St.  Andrews,  on  hearing  of  this  on  his  arrival  in  Edinburgh,  “ did  chal- 
lenge the  chancellor  for  remissness,  and  not  executing  the  laws  against  delinquents, 
and,  in  particular,  for  confining  of  Earlston  to  Edinburgh,  alleging  it  had  been  bet- 
ter to  send  him  to  his  own  house  in  Galloway,  than  to  detain  him  among  the  fanatical 
wives  of  Edinburgh.”  The  consequence  was  that  Earlston  was  banished  out  of 
Scotland.  (Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  464.)  Even  in  his  public  sermons,  Sharp 
could  not  refrain  from  giving  expression  to  his  malignant  hatred  of  presbyterian 
women.  In  his  opening  discourse,  at  one  of  his  diocesan  synods  at  St.  Andrews, 
he  indulged  in  a strain  of  vehement  invective  “against  the  unconform  honest  people, 
especially  against  women,  whom  he  called  ‘ she  zealots,’  ‘ Satanesses.’  ” — Ibid.,  p,  523.  • 
11  Kirkton’s  Histoiy,  pp.  344-346. 

16* 


18G 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


cetious  fhanner,  and  apparently  pleased  with  the  fright  into  which 
Sharp  was  thrown,  Mrs.  Livingstone  proceeded  to  address  him 
in  support  of  the  petition,  “ and  took  hold  of  his  sleeve.  He 
bowed  down  his  head,  and  listened  to  her  (because  she  spoke 
well),  even  till  he  came  to  the  council-chamber  door.”*  The 
petition  is  as  follows  : — 

“ Unto  the  Right  Honorable  the  Lords  of  his  Majesty’s  Privy  Coun- 
cil— The  Humble  Supplication  of  several  Women  of  the  City 
of  Edinburgh,  in  their  own  name,  and  in  the  name  of  many 
who  adhere  thereto.  Humbly  Showeth  : — 

‘‘  That  whereas  your  petitioners  being  long  deprived  of  the 
blessing  of  a faithful  public  ministry,  and  of  the  purity  of  wor- 
ship and  ordinances  that  God  hath  commanded,  and  after  much 
sad  suffering  for  attendance  thereupon  in  private ; yet  for  some 
short  while  bygone,  and  in  the  time  when  his  majesty’s  commis- 
sioner was  among  us,  your  lordship’s  petitioners  have,  without 
molestation,  enjoyed  some  small  liberty  by  his  majesty’s  gracious 
connivance ; yet  now  we  are  sadly  alarmed,  that  through  the 
malicious  and  false  information  given  in  by  some  of  those  who 
side  with  and  serve  the  bishops,  your  lordships  may  be  induced,  to 
the  grief  of  the  hearts  of  many  thousands  in  this  land,  to  trouble 
the  quiet  meetings  of  the  Lord’s  people  at  his  worship. 

“ May  it  therefore  please  your  lordships  to  grant  such  liberty 
to  our  honest  ministers,  that  are  through  the  land  and  in  this  city, 
that  they  may  lawfully,  and  without  molestation,  exercise  their 
holy  function,  as  the  people  shall  in  an  orderly  way  call  them ; 
that  we  may,  to  the  comfort  of  our  souls,  enjoy  the  rich  blessing 
of  faithful  pastors,  and  that  our  pastors  may  be  delivered  from 
any  sinful  compliance  with  what  is  contrary  to  the  known  judg- 
ment of  honest  presbyterians.  In  doing  whereof,  your  lordships 
will  do  good  service  to  God  and  the  king’s  majesty,  and  deeply 
oblige  all  honest  people  in  the  land.  And  your  petitioners  shall 
ever  pray,”  &c.t 

The  other  fourteen  ladies,  in  like  manner,  presented  copies  of 
the  petition  to  other  members  of  the  privy  council,  as  they  passed 
to  the  council-chamber.  The  lady  who  presented  her  copy  to 

^ Kirkton’s  History,  pp.  344-34G.  See  also  Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii,.  p.  269. 
Row,  in  bis  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  gives  a different  account  of  the  chancellor's  recep- 
tion of  the  ladies  petition.  He  says  that  “ a grave  matron,”  namely  Mrs.  Living- 
stone, “presented  their  supplication”  to  the  chancellor,  “ entreating  that  he  would 
present  it  to  the  council,  but  the  chancellor  slighting  her,  and  refusing  the  supplica- 
tion, was  forced  to  take  it  from  some  others  who  thrust  themselves  in  betwixt  him 
and  the  trembling  prelate,  promising  it  should  be  read  and  considered.” — Row’s 
Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  539.  t Wodrow's  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  269. 


MRS.  JOHN  LIVINGSTONE,  &c. 


187 


Lord  Stairs,  one  of  the  senators  of  the  college  of  justice — a man 
who  was  formerly  a zealous  covenanter,  but  who  became  in  the 
end  a bitter  persecutor — found  no  such  kind  reception  as  Mrs. 
Livingstone  met  with  from  the  chancellor ; for  he  rudely  threw 
it  on  the  ground,  which  made  one  remind  him  of  his  having  be- 
longed at  one  time  to  the  remonstrators,  the  strictest  sect  of  the 
presbyterians  during  the  commonwealth,  and  of  his  having  penned 
the  Western  Remonstrance,  a paper,  for  adherence  to  which,  Mr. 
James  Guthrie  and  others  suffered  to  the  death.* 

In  the  proceedings  of  Mrs.  Livingstone  and  her  female  asso- 
ciates, which  we  have  now  narrated,  a liberal  government  would 
have  found  little  to  blame,  and  no  cause  whatever  for  adopting 
against  these  ladies  legal  proceedings.  Their  intentions  were 
perfectly  loyal ; their  petition  in  its  object  was  highly  reasonable, 
and  though  containing  a plain  declaration  of  their  principles,  was 
couched  in  very  moderate  and  respectful  language.  They  assem- 
bled in  the  parliament  close  in  the  most  peaceable  manner ; and 
to  none  of  the  members  of  the  council,  with  the  exception  of 
Archbishop  Sharp,  did  they  offer  the  slightest  disrespect.  But 
their  lordships,  resolute  on  putting  down  all  petitioning  and  rep- 
resentation of  grievances,  which  they  well  knew  to  be  one  of  the 
most  effectual  safeguards  against  misgovernment  and  oppression, 
arbitrarily  pronounced  both  the  meeting  and  the  petition  sedi- 
tious, and  proceeded  against  those  concerned  in  them  as  guilty 
of  sedition. 

The  counsellors  having  got  into  the  council-house  through  the 
crowd,  the  petition  was  read.  Meanwhile  the  women  were  wait- 
ing in  the  parliament  close  for  an  answer.  But  there  was  no  in- 
tention to  grant  them  their  request ; and  the  lord-provost,  with 
two  bailies,  were  sent  out  to  entreat  them  peaceably  to  disperse 
and  retire  to  their  homes  ; which  if  they  did,  he  promised  to  be- 
friend them  and  their  cause,  and  that  their  supplication  should 
receive  an  answer  to-morrow.  They  did  as  the  provost,  who 
spoke  to  them  very  discreetly,  desired  them  ; the  parliament  close 
was  quickly  cleared,  and  all  was  again  quiet,  as  if  no  crowd  had 
assembled.  At  that  meeting  of  council,  all  the  members  v/ere 
desired  to  name  such  ladies  as  they  knew  to  be  among  the  crowd. 
A few  were  named,  and  they  were  summoned  to  compear  before 
the  council  at  their  next  meeting,  which  was  to  be  held  on  the 
11th  of  June.  A committee  was  also  appointed,  to  make  inquiry 
into  all  the  circumstances  connected  with  the  petition,  by  whom 

Kirkton’s  History,  pp.  344-346.  Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  269.  Row’s  Life 
of  Robert  Blair,  p.  469. 


188 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


it  was  drawn  up,  and  who  had  presented  the  different  copies  to 
the  members  of  council.* 

On  the  11th  of  June,  the  ladies  summoned,  who  were  about  a 
dozen,  made  their  appearance  at  the  bar  of  the  council.  They 
were  desired,  previous  to  their  examination,  to  take  the  oath 
usually  administered  ; but  this  they  all  refused  to  do,  not  judging 
that  they  were  bound  to  “ tell  the  whole  truth,”  in  reference  to 
the  petition.  They,  however,  declared  in  answer  to  questions 
put  to  them,  that  no  man  had  any  hand  in  suggesting  it  or  drawing 
it  up,  and  that  they  were  moved  to  the  course  they  had  taken  by 
a sense  of  their  starving  and  perishing  condition,  through  the 
want  of  the  gospel,  having  none  to  preach  to  them  but  ignorant 
and  profane  men,  whom  they  could  not  conscientiously  hear. 
After  being  examined,  they  were  required  to  subscribe  to  their 
depositions  ; but  this,  also,  the  most  of  them  refused  to  do.  They 
were  then  dismissed,  and  required  again  to  compear  before  the 
council  in  the  afternoon ; which  they  did,  attended  in  the  parliament 
close  by  a great  multitude,  consisting  not  only  of  women,  but 
also  of  men,  all  resolved  to  stand  by  them,  and  to  prevent  their 
being  imprisoned.  Having  been  again  examined,  they  were  put 
together  in  a room^;  and  the  provost  of  Edinburgh  was  sent  out 
to  disperse  the  crowd.  But  the  crowd  peremptorily  refused  to 
withdraw  till  their  friends  were  dismissed,  and  declared  their 
willingness  to  share  with  them  in  whatever  they  might  suffer. 
On  learning  the  bold  resolution  of  the  multitude  without,  the 
council  dismissed  the  ladies  who  had  been  at  their  bar  ; entreating 
them  to  repair  peaceably  to  their  homes. f 

But,  as  if  determined  by  all  means,  fair  or  foul,  to  be  avenged 
on  these  ladies,  who  had  presumed  to  arraign  the  policy  of  the 
government,  the  council  dismissed  them,  not  honestly,  but  with 
the  fraudulent  intention  of  surprising  them  that  night,  and  carry- 
ing them  from  their  beds  to  prison.  This  intention,  however, 
being  whispered  by  some  counsellors,  the  honest  women  left 
their  own  houses  ; so  that  they  all  escaped  being  made  prisoners 

* We  have  here  followed  Row,  in  his  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  539.  Wodrow, 
whose  account  is  different  from  that  of  Row,  mistakes  the  proceedings  of  the  privy 
council  on  the  11th  of  June,  when  a second  crowd  assembled  in  the  parliament  close, 
for  their  proceedings  on  the  4th  of  June,  the  day  on  which  the  first  crow’d  assem- 
bled. His  narrative  relates  not,  as  he  supposed,  to  their  proceedings  on  the  4th  of 
that  month,  but  to  their  proceedings  on  the  11th  ; and  we  have  so  introduced  it  in 
the  following  paragraph.  (Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  269.)  Wodrow  says  that 
the  petition  was  subscribed  ; but  this  seems  to  be  incorrect.  The  privy  council,  as 
we  shall  afterward  see,  affirmed  that  no  signatures  were  appended  to  it ; and  there 
is  no  reason  to  call  in  question  the  truth  of  their  statement. 

t Row’s  Life  of  Rofet  Blair,  p.  539.  Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  269. 


MRS.  JOHN  LIVINGSTONE,  &c. 


189 


at  this  time,  with  the  exception  of  one  poor  woman,  who  appre- 
hended no  danger.* * * § 

This  second  crowd  in  the  parliament  close  had  the  effect  of 
still  more  irritating  the  privy  council,  and  in  their  proceedings 
against  the  ladies,  it  formed  an  additional  article  in  the  libel 
charging  them  with  sedition.  It  strengthened  their  previous 
purpose,  to  inflict  some  exemplary  punishment  on  these  female 
petitioners  ; a purpose  formed  with  the  desigA  of  frightening  any, 
whether  male  or  female,  from  in  future  making  any  similar  at- 
tempt to  lay  their  grievances  before  government,  and  to  seek  re- 
dress. To  have  granted  the  prayer  of  the  petition,  as  they  rea- 
soned, would  have  been  to  open  the  sluice  to  an  inundation, 
which  would  have  overflowed  every  barrier,  putting  it  beyond 
their  power  to  hem  it  in,  or  to  say,  “ Hitherto  shalt  thou  come,  and 
no  farther.” 

The  proceedings  of  the  privy  council  against  these  ladies 
continued  till  near  the  close  of  the  year ; and  their  case  formed 
an  article  in  most  of  the  letters  which  came  from  the  king  to  the 
council  during  the  summer.  From  the  register  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  council  we  learn  that,  on  the  25th  of  June,  several 
ladies  who  had  refused  to  depone  before  the  council,  or  commit- 
tee of  council,  respecting  the  meeting  of  the  4th  of  June,  and  the 
petition,  were  lying  in  prison ; for,  at  their  meeting  of  that  day, 
“ The  lords  of  his  majesty’s  privy  council  do  recommend  to  the 
earls  Marischall,  Linlithgow,  Caithness,  Wigton,  and  the  lord- 
register,  to  meet  to-morrow,  and  to  consider  any  address  which 
shall  be  made  to  them  by  Margaret  Johnston,!  Lilias  Campbell, 
or  any  others,  who  are  prisoners  in  the  tolbooth  of  Edinburgh, 
for  not  deponing  before  the  council,  or  committee  of  council  ;J  as 
also  to  consider  any  address  which  shall  be  made  for  any  persons 
against  whom  certification  is  granted  upon  that  account,  with 
power  to  them  to  set  the  said  persons  at  liberty,  or  to  continue 
further  execution  of  the  certification  against  them,  upon  their 
giving  their  oaths  ; and  appoint  any  two  of  them  to  be  a quo- 
rum.”^ 

* Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Biair,  p.  539. 

t Margaret  Johnston  was  a daughter  of  the  celebrated  Archibald  Johnston,  Lord 
W arris  ton. 

t That  is,  for  refusing  to  make  their  depositions  upon  oath.  In  a letter  to  the 
.duke  of  Lauderdale  on  the  2d  of  July,  the  council  say,  “ Inquiry  has  also  been  made 
concerning'the  petition  oftered  in  a tumultuary  way  by  some  women,  of  whom  di- 
verse being  cited,  these  appearing,  and  refusing  to  give  their  oaths  as  to  the  points 
interrogated  upon,  are  imprisoned,  and  certification  is  granted  against  such  as  were 
absent.” — Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  241. 

§ Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council. 


190 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


The  privy  council,  who  were  sufficiently  disposed  of  them- 
selves to  deal  harshly  with,  the  female  petitioners,  were  urged  on 
by  the  court  at  London,  which  was  still  guided,  in  the  manage- 
ment of  Scottish  affairs,  almost  exclusively  by  the  counsel  of 
Lauderdale,  the  Ahithophel  of  the  court  of  Charles  11. , as  he 
was  designated  by  some  of  the  Scottish  martyrs.  On  the  30th 
of  June  the  council  received  a letter  from  his  majesty,  dated  the 
23d  of  that  month*  stating  that  he  had  received  information  of 
“ that  seditious  petition  of  many  women,  and  of  their  tumultuous 
carriage  at  the  delivering  of  it and  requiring  the  council  to  use 
their  “ utmost  rigor  in  finding  out  and  bringing  to  just  judgment 
the  ringleaders  of  such  seditious  and  insolent  practices,  and  for 
quelling  that  mad  spirit.”*  To  the  prosecution  against  these 
women,  which  was  severe  enough  before,  this  letter  gave  a new 
impulse.  Their  houses  Avere  searched  night  and  day ; the 
magistrates  of  Edinburgh  had  recourse  to  every  means  in  order 
to  discover  such  as  were  present  in  the  parliament  close  ; and 
some  of  those  who  had  been  present,  on  being  brought  before  the 
privy  council,  and  refusing  to  depone  upon  oath,  were  at  length 
denounced.! 

The  case  of  these  ladies  again  came  under  the  consideration 
of  the  council,  at  their  meeting  on  the  16th  of  July,  when  the 
council  “ nominate  and  appoint  the  earls  Marischall,  Caithness, 
Linlithgow,  Wigton,  and  the  lord-register,  to  meet  upon  Saturday 
next,  at  3 o’clock,  and  to  consider  the  condition  of  these  persons 
imprisoned  for  being  at  the  tumultuary  meeting  in  the  parliament 
close,  and  to  report  their  opinion  concerning  them  to  the  council ; 
as,  also,  to  examine  such  of  the  women  as  were  called  and  com- 
peared, and  were  not  dismissed  by  the  council,  and  such  others 
as  shall  appear  before  the  committee,  with  poAver  to  the  commit- 
tee to  imprison  such  persons  as  they  shall  find  cause,  and  to  re- 
port.” At  the  same  meeting,  the  ‘‘  council  having  considered  the 
petition  of  Margaret  Johnston,  prisoner  in  the  tolbooth  of  Edin- 
burgh, do  ordain  the  magistrates  of  Edinburgh  to  set  her  at  lib- 
erty, she  first  finding  sufficient  caution  to  confine  herself  to  a 
chamber  in  the  town  of  Edinburgh,  and  not  to  remove  forth 
thereof,  until  the  council  shall  give  order  anent  her,  under  the 
pain  of  five  hundred  merks.”j: 

Again  taking  up  this  case,  at  their  meeting  on  the  21st  of  July, 
the  council  “ ordain  and  command  the  committee  formerly  ap- 
pointed to  examine  that  tumult  of  the  women  in  the  parliament 

^ Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  238.  t Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  545. 

t Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council. 


MRS.  JOHN  LIVINGSTONE,  &c. 


191 


close,  “ to  call  before  them  all  such  persons  as  have  been  given 
up  in  list  already,  or  against  whom  they  shall  have  information, 
or  who  have  been  already  summoned,  as  accessory  to  that  tumult, 
except  such  as  appeared  and  were  dismissed  by  the  council,  and 
to  examine  them  upon  their  own  accession  and  guiltiness;  as 
also,  to  examine  them  upon  oath,  whom  they  knew  to  have  ac- 
cession to  the  contriving,  drawing,  or  writing  of  that  seditious 
petition  they  had  among  them,  what  persons  they  saw  and  knew 
to  be  in  the  parliament  close  upon  that  account  with  them,  who 
had  the  petition  in  their  hands,  or  offered  copies  to  any  of  the 
council — and  if  they  refuse  to  depone  thereupon,  that  they  forth- 
with commit  the  refusers  to  prison,  until  the  council  shall  give 
further  order,  and  Margaret  Johnston  to  be  begun  with  to-morrow  ; 
and  to  report  to  the  council  from  time  to  time.”* 

From  this  act  it  appears  that  the  council  had  not  yet  discov- 
ered that  Mrs.  Livingstone  was  the  person  who  presented  the 
petition  to  the  chancellor.  But  by  zealous  and  unremitting  inqui- 
ries, they  at  length  succeeded  in  discovering  the  names  of  a con- 
siderable number  of  ladies,  who  had  been  present  at  the  “ tumul- 
tuous convocation and  no  time  was  lost  in  acting  upon  this 
discovery.  Letters  were  raised  against  them,  at  the  instance  of 
Sir  John  Nisbet  of  Dirleton,  his  majesty’s  advocate,  charging 
them  with  “ seditious  and  unlawful  practices,”  for  which  they 
“ ought  to  be  exemplarily  punished,  to  the  terror  and  example  of 
others  to  commit  and  do  the  like  in  time  coming,”  and  summoning 
them  to  appear  before  the  council  personally,  on  the  30th  of  July, 
and  answer  to  the  complaint  contained  in  the  letters,  and  hear  and 
see  such  order  taken  thereanent,  as  appertained  under  the  pain 
of  rebellion.  The  ladies  against  whom  these  letters  were  raised, 
were  the  following:  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Rutherford;  Rachel  Aird, 
spouse  to  William  Lorimer,  merchant,  and  Sarah  Lorimer  her 
daughter ; Catherine  Montgomery,  relict  of  Mr.  Robert  Blair ; 
Barbara  Home,  spouse  to  Mr.  Robert  Lockhart ; Isabel  Kennedy, 
spouse  to  James  Clelland ; Elizabeth  Dalziel,  spouse  to  David 
Gray ; Agnes  Henderson,  spouse  to  Robert  Simpson ; Margaret 
Dury,  spouse  to  George  Dundas,  brother  to  the  laird  of  Dundas  ; 

t sister  to  Lord  Melville  ; Grissel  Durham  relict  of 

Captain  Drummond ; Mr.  George  Johnston’s  wife  ; Mrs.  Arnot ; 

t rolict  of  Mr.  John  Nevay ; Sarah  Brand,  spouse  to 

Alexander  Gurshone,  merchant  in  Edinburgh ; . . . f Kerr,  La- 
dy Mersington,  younger ; and  Rachel  Johnston  ; Lady  Cramond. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  quote  at  some  length,  from  the  letters 
^ Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council.  t Blanks  in  MS. 


192 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


raised  against  these  ladies,  both  because  they  contain  the  privy 
council’s  account  of  the  meeting  in  the  parliament  close,  and  their 
version  of  the  petition,  as  well  as  a statement  of  the  grounds  upon 
which  they  found  both  to  be  seditious.  The  letters  commence 
with  an  enumeration  of  the  acts  of  parliament,  of  which  the 
meeting  and  petition  are  said  to  be  a violation  : “ Making  men- 
tion that  by  the  laws  and  acts  of  this  kingdom,  it  is  prohibit  and 
statute,  that  no  man  come  to  any  court  but  in  quiet  and  sober 
manner,  and  all  tumultuary  convocations,  commotions,  uproars, 
and  gatherings,  especially  within  royal  burghs,  are  prohibit  under 
great  and  high  pains  ; and  by  diverse  laws  and  acts  of  parliament, 
it  is  statute,  that  if  any  person  or  persons  presume,  or  take  upon 
hand,  privately  or  publicly  to  utter  by  word  or  write  any  slan- 
derous speeches  to  the  contempt  and  reproach  of  his  majesty’s 
proceedings,  or  to  meddle  with  the  affairs  of  his  highness,  and 
his  estate  and  proceedings,  they  are  to  be  repute  as  seditious 
and  wicked  persons,  enemies  to  his  majesty,  and  the  common 
weal  of  the  realm,  and  shall  be  punished  with  the  pains  therein 
contained ; and  by  the  second  act  of  the  second  session  of  his 
majesty’s  first  parliament,  it  is  declared  and  statute,  that  if  any 
person  or  persons  shall  by  writing,  libelling,  or  remonstrating, 
express,  publish,  or  declare,  any  words  or  sentences  lo  stir  up 
the  people  to  hatred  or  dislike  of  his  majesty’s  royal  prerogative, 
or  of  the  government  of  the  church  by  archbishops  and  bishops, 
as  it  is  now  settled  by  law,  that  every  such  person  or  persons  so 
offending,  shall  be  punished  in  manner  and  with  the  pains  therein 
contained,  and  shall  be  liable  to  such  farther  pains  as  are  due  by 
the  law  in  such ; and  by  the  first  act  of  the  first  session  of  his 
majesty’s  first  parliament,  entitled,  ‘ Anent  Separation  and  Diso- 
bedience to  Ecclesiastic  Authority,’  his  majesty  did  declare,  that 
he  expected  from  all  his  good  and  dutiful  subjects,  a due  acknowl- 
edgment of,  and  hearty  compliance  with,  his  highness’s  govern- 
ment ecclesiastical  and  civil,  as  it  is  now  established  by  law, 
within  this  kingdom,  and  that,  in  order  thereunto,  they  will  give 
their  cheerful  concurrence  and  assistance  to  such  ministers  as 
by  public  authority  are  admitted  in  their  several  parishes,  and 
that  his  majesty  will  and  doth  account  a withdrawing  from,  and 
not  keeping  and  joining  in,  the  ordinary  meetings  for  divine 
worship  in  the  ordinary  parishes,  to  be  seditious  and  of  danger- 
ous consequence,  and  by  the  said  act,  the  same  is  punishable 
with  the  pains  therein  contained,  and  such  other  corporal  punish- 
ment as  the  lords  of  privy  council  shall  think  fit ; as  also  by  di- 
verse acts  against  conventicles,  it  is  statute,  that  no  outed  minister 


MRS.  JOHN  LIVINGSTONE,  &c. 


193 


not  licensed  by  the  council,  and  no  other  person  not  authorized 
by  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  shall  preach,  expound  scripture  or 
pray,  in  any  meeting,  except  in  their  own  houses,  and  to  those 
of  their  own  family,  and  that  none  be  present  at  such  meetings, 
which  by  the  said  act  are  declared  to  be  the  ordinary  seminaries 
of  rebellion,  under  the  pains  therein  expressed.”* 

The  letters  next  proceed  to  give  an  account  of  the  meeting, 
and  of  the  petition  presented  by  the  ladies.  After  naming  the 
persons  against  whom  they  were  raised,!  they  go  on  to  say,  that 
these  persons  “ have,  in  manifest  contempt  of  his  majesty’s  au- 
thority, presumed  to  contravene  the  foresaid  laws,  and  to  commit 
and  do  the  deeds,  crimes,  and  seditious  practices  above  mentioned, 
in  so  far  as  the  said  persons  and  their  associates  and  complices, 
upon  the  [4th]  day  of  June  last,  did  in  a most  insolent,  seditious, 
and  tumultuary  manner  gather,  convocate,  and  convene  together 
in  the  court  of  his  majesty’s  parliament  house,  in  such  a number 
and  multitude  of  persons,  that  the  said  whole  court  was  filled 
with  women  and  a disorderly  rabble,  and  the  said  convocation, 
commotion,  and  uproar  was  not  only  within  the  town  of  Edin- 
burgh, the  chief  and  capital  city  of  the  kingdom,  and  ordinary 
seat  and  place  of  judicature,  and  specially  his  highness’s  council 
sitting  there  for  doing  of  justice  and  preserving  the  quiet  and 
peace  of  the  kingdom,  and  punishing  and  preventing  of  tumults  ; 
but  the  said  tumultuous  convocation  was  of  purpose  and  of  de- 
sign, because  the  council  was  to  sit,  upon  the  council  day,  and 
immediately  before, ^and  at  the  time  of  the  sitting  of.his  majesty’s 
said  council,  and  in  court  and  at  the  very  doors  of  the  house 
where  the  council  did  sit,  and  upon  pretence  that  they  came  to 
the  council  to  present  a petition.  And  shaking  off  all  respect 
to  his  majesty’s  authority,  and  to  the  council’s  and  counsellors’, 
the  said  persons  and  their  complices  did  proceed  to  so  great  a 
height  of  insolence,  that  many  of  the  said  women  did  go  into, 
and  place  themselves  on  the  stair  of  the  council  house,  and  others 
did  stand  in  the  court  the  way  to  the  said  council  house  ; and 
when  the  lords  of  council  were  coming  to  the  said  court,  the 
multitude  did  so  crowd  and  throng  in  upon  them,  that  with  great 
difficulty  they  could  go  up  to  the  council  house  ; and  while  they 
were  going  through  the  close  and  up  the  stairs  of  the  council 
house,  some  of  the  said  women  did  take  hold  of  some  of  them, 
and  did  give  them  the  double  of  the  petition,  which  they  said 
they  had  given  in  to  be  presented  to  the  council,  and  others, 
amidst  the  great  noise  and  uproar,  did  revile  and  utter  injurious 
* Decreets  of  Privy  Council,  July  30,  1674.  tSee  their  names  above. 

17 


194 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


speeches  against  some  of  his  majesty’s  counsellors.  And  as 
tile  said  pretended  petitioning,  remonstrating,  and  application  to 
his  highness’s  privy  council  was  most  disorderly  and  seditious, 
and  of  dangerous  example  and  consequence,  as  to  the  manner 
thereof,  so  it  was  also  most  seditious  and  scandalous  as  to  the 
matter,  and  does  contain  and  import  reproaches  and  reflections 
upon  his  majesty’s  government,  and  meddling  in  the  affairs  of 
Ins  majesty  and  his  estate,  and  depraving  his  highness’s  laws 
and  misconstructing  his  proceedings,  and  libelling  and  remon- 
strating seditious  words  and  sentences,  to  stir  up  the  people  to 
the  hatred  and  dislike  of  the  government  of  the  church  by  arch- 
bishops and  bishops  as  it  is  now  settled  by  law,  in  so  far  as  the 
said  petition  is  in  name  of  several  women  without  naming  them, 
and  without  their  subscriptions,  and  it  is  in  their  own  name  and 
in  the  name  of  all  who  will  adhere  to  them,  inviting  others,  and 
insinuating  that  they  expect  they  will  join  with  them ; and  the 
said  petition  bears  most  falsely  and  most  scandalously,  that  the 
petitioners  had  been  long  deprived  of  the  inestimable  blessing 
of  the  public  worship  and  ordinances  of  God,  whereas  it  is  notbr 
that  his  majesty’s  subjects  do  enjoy  the  blessing  of  the  public 
worship  and  ordinances  of  God  in  great  purity  and  peace,  and 
that  there  is  an  orderly  ministry,  authorized  and  countenanced 
and  established  by  law  ; and  the  said  persons  by  the  petition 
foresaid  do  not  only  acknowledge  their  unlawful  withdrawing 
from,  and  not  joining  with,  the  ordinary  public  meetings  for  di- 
vine worship,  and  their  keeping  of  conventicles,  and  attendance 
upon  worship  in  private,  contrary  to  so  many  laws,  but  do  pre- 
sume to  desire  liberty  to  keep  the  said  private  meetings  and 
conventicles  prohibited  by  so  many  l^ws,  and  that  outed  ministers, 
Avhom  they  call  their  ‘ honest  ministers,’  may  be  allowed  to  ex- 
ercise their  function,  as  the  people  shall  call  them  thereto,  so 
that  they  might  enjoy  the  rich  blessing  of  faithful  pastors,  and 
that  their  pastors  may  be  delivered  from  the  sinful  compliance 
of  those  who  are  contrary  to  the  known  judgnient  of  honest  pres- 
byterians  ; by  all  which  desires,  expressions,  and  others,  in  the 
said  petition,  the  petitioners  do  scandalously  asperse  and  reflect 
upon  his  majesty’s  government,  and  in  special  upon  the  church, 
by  archbishops  and  bishops,  as  it  is  settled  by  law,  as  if  outed 
and  disorderly  ministers  were  the  only  honest  ministers,  and  the 
people  were  deprived  of  the  blessing  of  faithful  pastors,  because 
the  said  outed  ministers  are  not  allowed  to  preach,  and  as  if 
obedience  to  the  laws  and  compliance  of  ministers  with  his  maj-; 
esty’s  government  ecclesiastical  established  by  law  were  sinful.” 


MRS.  JOHN  LIVINGSTONE,  &c. 


195 


The  letters  next  adduce  their  assembling  a second  time,  on 
the  11th  of  June,  as  a high  aggravation  of  their  alleged  seditious 
conduct : “ And  the  said  persons,  not  content  to  have  made  the 
said  seditious  convocation,  tumult,  and  uproar,  at  the  time  and  in 
the  manner  above  related,  did  again  relapse  and  adventure  upon 
the  said  seditious  practices  ; and  upon  the  [11th]  day  of  [June], 
being  the  next  council  day  thereafter,  when  the  council  was  about 
to  sit,  and  the  time  of  the  sitting  thereof,  they  did  again  convene, 
in  the  said  place,  and  did  make  a disorderly  convocation,  commo- 
tion, and  uproar,  in  manner,  and  with  the  same,  if  not  worse  cir- 
cumstances than  is  above  libelled,  and  had  the  boldness  and  confi- 
dence to  pretend  that  they  came  for  an  answer  to  the  said  petition.’' 

The  letters  next  charge  several  of  these  ladies,  as  Catherine 
Montgomery  and  Isabel  Kennedy,  with  having,  when  convened 
before  the  privy  council  -(although  they  confessed  their  being 
present  at  the  said  tumults),  altogether  and  obstinately  refused 
“ to  declare  upon  oath  their  knowledge  concerning  the  persons 
present  and  accessory  to  the  said  tumult,  and  other  circumstances 
relating  to  the  same  whereby  it  is  declared  they  had  incurred 
the  penalties  contained  in  the  second  act  of  the  second  session 
of  his  majesty’s  second  parliament,  entitled  ‘ Act  against  delin- 
quents who  should  refuse  to  depone,’  ” by  which  “ it  is  statute 
that  all  and  every  subject  of  this  kingdom,  of  v/hat  degree,  sex, 
or  quality  soever,  who  shall  be  called  by  his  majesty’s  privy 
council,  or  any  others  having  authority  from  his  majesty,  to  de- 
clare upon  oath  their  knowledge  of  any  crimes  against  his  majes- 
ty’s laws,  and  the  peace  of  the  kingdom,  and  particularly  of  any 
conventicles  or  other  unlawful  meetings,  and  shall  refuse  or  delay 
to  declare  or  depone  thereanent,  they  shall  be  punished  in  manner 
therein  contained.” 

Such  is  the  amount  of  the  charges  brought  against  these  female 
petitioners,  and  to  answer  to  which  they  were  summoned  to  ap- 
pear at  the  bar  of  the  privy  council.  But  none  of  them  made 
their  appearance,  believing  that  had  they  appeared,  and  refused 
to  make  any  acknowledgments,  which,  having  committed  no 
crime,  they  were  not  prepared  to  make,  they  would  probably 
have  been  thrown  into  prison.  Accordingly,  after  “ being  oft- 
times  called  and  not  compearing,  the  lords  of  his  majesty’s  privy 
council,  July  30,  do  ordain  letters  to  be  directed  to  messengers- 
at-arms  to  pass  to  the  market-cross  of  Edinburgh  . . .*  and  thereat, 
in  his  majesty’s  name  and  authority,  duly,  lawfully,  and  orderly, 
to  denounce  the  said  Mrs,  Elizabeth  Rutherford,  &c.,t  his  maj- 
* Blank  in  MS.  t See  the  other  names  at  p.  191. 


196 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


esty’s  rebels,  and  put  them  to  the  horn,  and  escheit  and  imbring 
all  their  moveable  goods  and  gear  to  his  highness’s  use  for  their 
contempt  and  disobedience.”* 

On  the  29th  of  September,  the  privy  council  again  convened, 
but  little  was  done.  “ Only  they  were  very  hot  upon  the  chase 
against  the  women  that  offered  their  petition.”! 

As  the  name  of  Mrs.  Livingstone  does  not  occur  among  the 
ladies  who  were  summoned  to  appear  before  the  privy  council 
on  the  30th  of  July,  and  who,  not  appearing,  were  declared  his 
majesty’s  rebels  and  put  to  the  horn,  it  may  be  concluded  that 
the  council  had  not  yet  discovered  that  she  was  at  the  head  of 
the  movement,  and  was  the  person  who  presented  the  petition  to 
the  chancellor.  But  by  subsequent  inquiries  they  appear  to  have 
made  this  discovery,  or  to  have  found,  at  least,  that  at  the  ‘‘  tu- 
multuous convocation”  she  had  presented  a copy  of  the  petition  to 
some  one  or  other  of  the  councillors.  Accordingly,  she  and  sev- 
eral Other  ladies!  were  summoned  to  appear  before  the  council 
on  the  12th  of  November  that  year,  “ as  being  guilty  of  a tumult- 
uary convocation,  commotion,  and  uproar,  within  the  parliament 
close,  in  the  month  of  June  last,  the  time  of  the  meeting  and  sit- 
ting of  the  council,  and  of  presenting  a most  insolent  and  sedi- 
tious petition  to  some  of  the  council.”  Mrs.  Livingstone  and  the 
others  who  were  summoned,  compeared  before  the  council  on 
the  12th  of  November,  and,  on  being  examined,  confessed  that 
they  were  “ present  in  the  said  tumult.”  The  result  was,  that 
the  lords  of  council  banished  them  from  the  city  of  Edinburgh, 
Leith,  and  suburbs  thereof,  and  ordained  them  against  the  1st  of 
December  next  to  depart  from  the  said  bounds,  discharging  them 
to  return  thereto  in  future,  as  they  would  be  answerable  at  their 
highest  peril.  II 

Mrs.  Livingstone,  and  all  the  rest,  with  two  exceptions,  were 
obliged  immediately  to  act  in  conformity  with  this  sentence. 
The  two  exceptions  were  Margaret  Johnston  and  Lilias  Camp- 

* Decreets  of  Privy  Council,  July  30, 1674.  t Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  552. 

I The  names  of  the  ladies,  as  given  in  the  act  of  council,  12th  of  November,  are 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  Rutherford;  Margaret  Johnston;  Lilias  Campbell;  Lady  Mersing- 
ton,  elder;  Bethia  Murray,  spouse  to  Hugh  Mossman,  couppar  in  Leith;  Janet 
Fleming,  relict  of  Mr.  John  Livingstone ; Catherine  Montgomery,  relict  of  Mr.  Rob- 
ert Blair;  Margaret  Lundy,  spouse  to  John  Hamilton,  merchant  at  the  foot  of  the 
West  Bow  ; Margaret  Drury,  spouse  to  George  Dundas,  brother  to  the  laird  of  Dun- 
das  ; Isabel  Kennedy,  spouse  to  James  Clelland,  chirurgeon;  Rachel  Aird,  spouse 
to  William  Lorimer,  merchant ; Sarah  Lorimer,  his  daughter ; Barbara  Home,  spouse 
to  Mr.  Robert  Lockhart;  Elizabeth  Dalziel,  spouse  to  David  Gray,  hat-maker; 
Grissel  Durham,  relict  of  Captain  Drummond;  and  Agnes  Henderson,  spouse  to 
Robert  Simpson  in  Edinburgh. 

U Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council. 


MRS.  JOHN  LIVINGSTONE,  &c. 


197 


bell,  the  execution  of  whose  sentence  was  delayed  for  fourteen 
days  by  the  council,  at  their  meeting  on  the  3d  of  December,  in 
answer  to  a petition  presented  by  these  ladies. 

After  a short  absence,  some  of  the  banished  women  privately 
returned  to  their  own  houses  in  Edinburgh.  Receiving  informa- 
tion of  this,  the  authorities  of  the  city  caused  search  to  be  made 
for  them.*  But  the  storm  appears  gradually  to  have  blown  over, 
though  the  nutnber  of  nonconforming  ladies,  and  especially  of 
nonconforming  ministers’  wives  and  widows,  in  Edinburgh,  con- 
tinued to  be  a source  of  offence  and  uneasiness  to  the  govern- 
ment.! 

Thus  terminated  the  proceedings  against  Mrs.  Livingstone 
and  her  fellow-petitioners,  simply  for  their  exercising  a right  of 
which  no  power  on  earth  could  justly  deprive  them.  Their  treat- 
ment by  the  council  was,  throughout,  tyrannical  and  oppressive. 
Had  they,  like  a regiment  of  amazons,  assembled  with  pikes  and 
muskets  to  do  personal  violence  to  their  great  enemy.  Archbishop 
Sharp,  as  he  at  first  dreaded,  guilt  would  have  lain  upon  them, 
great  as  his  demerits  were,  and  some  pretext  would  have  been 
afforded  for  the  severity  wdth  which  they  were  proceeded  against. 
But  they  came  together  in  no  such  warlike  attitude,  nor  with  any 
such  intention.  One  writer  of  that  period.  Sir  George  Macken- 
zie, commonly  called  “ the  bloody  Mackenzie,”  would  indeed, 
either  with  the  view  of  covering  the  tyranny  of  the  government, 
or  of  stigmatizing  these  religious  women,  have  it  to  be  believed 
that  they  had  meditated  Sharp’s  destruction.  “ Petitions  for  able 
ministers,”  says  he,  “ were  given  in  to  the  council  by  many  hun- 
dreds of  women,  who,  filling  the  parliament  close,  threatened  the 
archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  who  passed  along  with  the  chancel- 
lor, for  whose  coming  he  had  waited  in  his  own  chamber  ; and 
some  of  them  had  conspired  to  set  upon  him,  when  a woman,! 
whom  I shun  to  name,  should  raise  her  hand  on  high  as  a signal 
— to  prevent  which,  the  chancellor  entertained  the  woman  with 
insinuating  speeches  all  the  time  as  he  passed  to  the  Qouncil,  and 
so  did  divert  that  bloody  design. ”||  A more  gratuitous  assertion 
it  is  impossible  to  make.  Neither  Kirkton  nor  Row,  both  con- 
temporary writers,  nor  Wodrow,  who  all  narrate  the  history  of 
this  affair,  give  the  smallest  countenance  to  such  a statement. 

* Row's  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  255. 

t On  the  12th  of  March,  1679,  “the  council  emitted  sundry  proclamations,  and 
commanded  all  nonconformed  ministers'  relicts,  or  wives,  to  void  the  town." — Foun* 
tainhall’s  Historical  Notices  of  Scottish  Affairs,  vol.  i.,  p.  225. 

X He  no  doubt  means  Mrs.  Livingstone. 

11  Sir  George  Mackenzie's  Memoirs  of  the  Affairs  of  Scotland,  &c.,  p.  273. 

17* 


198 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


And  should  their  evidence  be  suspected  of  partiality,  we  may 
appeal  to  the  ‘‘  Records  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Privy  Council,” 
in  which  is  registered  the  result  of  the  long  and  patient  inquiries 
of  the  committee  of  council  into  all  the  circumstances  connected 
with  the  supplication,  but  in  which  a profound  silence  is  preserved 
as  to  any  such  murderous  intention  ; a circumstance  not  likely  to 
have  occurred  had  there  been  any  ground  whatever  for  such  a 
charge.  It  is  indeed  manifest,  beyond  controversy,  from  all  these 
authorities  compared,  that  the  sole  object  of  these  ladies  was  the 
one  ostensibly  avowed  in  their  petition.  And  yet  Mackenzie’s 
calumny  has  been  taken  up  and  given  forth  as  historical  truth  by 
a writer  of  the  present  day.  These  viragoes,”  says  the  editor 
of  Law’s  Memorials,  “ headed  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Livingstone’s 
widow,  and  a daughter  of  Lord  Warriston,  had  laid  a plan  of 
murdering  Archbishop  Sharp,  it  being  agreed  that  Mrs.  Livings- 
tone was  to  hold  up  her  hand  as  a signal  for  the  pious  sisterhood 
to  rend  the  prelate  in  pieces  ; but  Lord  Rothes  contrived  to  en- 
gage her  in  conversation  till  the  opportunity  was  lost.”* 

Mrs.  Livingstone  subsequently  went  over  to  Holland.  Re- 
peated allusions  are  made  to  her  as  residing  there  in  the  letters 
of  Mr.  John  Carstairs  to  Mr.  Robert  M‘Ward,  Rotterdam,  in  the 
years  1677,  1678,  and  1679;  and  whenever  her  name  is  men- 
tioned, it  is  always  with  some  epithet  expressive  of  the  high 
esteem  in  which  she  was  held  by  the  writer.  In  a letter  to 
M^Ward,  dated  July  26,  1677,  Carstairs  says,  “ Lsalute  much  in 
the  Lord  that  mother  in  Israel,  choice  Mrs.  Livingstone,  and  her 
sweet  daughter.”!  In  another  letter  to  him,  dated  February  8, 

1678,  he  sends  his  salutations  to  her.J  In  a third  letter  to  him, 
dated  December  3, 1678,  he  says,  I am  troubled  for  our  loss  of 
worthy  Wallace,  and  am  glad  that  that  mother  in  Israel,  Mrs. 
Livingstone,  is  spared  a while,  that  we  might  not  have  sorrow 
upon  sorrow. ”11  In  a fourth  letter  to  him,  dated  February  17, 

1679,  he  says,  “ I dearly  salute  your  worthy  wife,  worthy  Mr. 
Gordon,  my  kind  and  obliging  friend,  choice  Mrs.  Livingstone, 
a mother  indeed  in  Israel.”^  And  in  a fifth  letter  to  him,  dated 
Edinburgh,  October,  1679,  he  again  sends  his  salutations  to  her.”^ 
This  is  the  last  notice  we  have  met  with  concerning  her.  How 
long  she  lived  after  this  is  uncertain,  nor  is  it  known  whether 
she  again  returned  to  Scotland.  The  probability  is,  that  she 

* Editor’s  foot-note  in  Law’s  Memorials,  p.  67.  The  editor  refers  to  Kiiktou  and 
Wodrow  as  his  authorities-  But  neither  of  these  writers  gives  liiin  the  slightest 
support.  Mackenzie,  though  not  referred  to,  is  his  sole  authority'. 

t Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  lix.,  folio,  No.  6.5.  t Ibid.,  No.  77. 

11  Ibid.,  No.  95.  § Ibid.,  No.  109.  % Ibid.,  No.  122. 


DUCHESS  OF  ROTHES. 


199 


spent  the  remainder  of  her  days  in  Holland,  and  that  her  ashes, 
like  those  of  her  distinguished  husband,  repose  in  that  hospitable 
retreat  of  our  persecuted  forefathers.* 

Some  of  Mrs.  Livingstone’s  children  emigrated  from  Scotland 
to  America,  to  the  state  of  New  York,  where  their  descendants 
have,  in  the  course  of  time,  become  people  of  the  first  distinction 
and  weight  in  society.  The  late  Dr.  John  H.  Livingstone,  min- 
ister of  the  Reformed  Dutch  church  in  New  York,  professor  of 
divinity  to  that  body,  and  president  of  Queen’s  College,  New 
Jersey — one  of  the  first  men  of  his  age  and  country,  and  whose 
memoirs  have  been  written  by  Mr.  Alexander  Gunn,  was  the 
great-great-grandson  of  the  subject  of  this  memoir. f 


LADY  ANNE  LINDSAY, 

DUCHESS  OF  ROTHES. 

Lady  AnxYE  Lindsay  was  the  eldest  daughter  of  John,  first 
earl  of  Lindsay,  and  fifteenth  earl  of  Crawford,  lord  high  treasu- 
rer of  Scotland,  by  his  wife.  Lady  Margaret  Hamilton,  second 
daughter  of  James,  second  marquis  of  Hamilton.^  Her  paternal 
grandmother  was  the  excellent  Lady  Boyd,  already  noticed  ; and 
her  maternal  grandmother  was  Lady  Arme  Cunningham,  mar- 
chioness of  Hamilton,  of  whom  some  account  has  also  been 
given. 

Her  father,  who  was  the  son  of  Lady  Boyd,  by  her  first  hus- 
band, Robert,  ninth  Lord  Lindsay  of  Byres,  was,  as  we  have  seen 
before, § a man  of  sound  religious  principle,  and  a steadfast  sup- 
porter of  the  second  reformation  cause.  He  warmly  opposed, 
though  without  success,  the  passing  of  the  act  rescissory  in  the 
first  parliament  of  Charles  IL,  by  which  all  the  parliaments,  since 
1633,  were  annulled,  and  all  the  proceedings  for  reformation  be- 
tween 1638  and  1650  were  denounced  rebellious  and  treasona- 
ble ; and  he  declared  himself  against  the  establishment  of  prelacy, 
assuring  his  majesty  that  a measure  so  opposed  to  the  feelings 
of  the  Scottish  people  would  be  followed  by  the  worst  effects. 

* There  is  a portrait  of  Mrs.  Livingstone  in  Gosford  house,  belonging  to  the  earl 
of  W emyss,  as  we-learn  from  a foot-note  in  Kirkton's  History,  by  the  editor,  p.  345. 
t Chambers’  Biographical  Dictionary  of  Eminent  Scotsmen,  art,  John  Livingstone, 
i Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  i.,  p.  387.  § See  p.  36. 


200 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


A strenuous  defender  of  the  lawfulness  and  obligation  of  the  na- 
tional covenants,  he  refused  to  take  the  declaration  abjuring  them 
as  unlawful  oaths  ;*  for  which  Charles  II.,  though  he  much  re- 
spected him,  incited  by  Archbishop  Sharp,  deprived  him  of  his 
office  of  lord  high  treasurer  of  Scotland.  His  answer,  when 
Charles  asked  him  whether  he  would  take  the  declaration,  is 
worthy  of  being  recorded  : “ As  I have  suffered  much,”  he  said, 
“ for  your  majesty,  even  nine  years’  imprisonment,  forfeiture,  and 
the  ruin  of  my  fortune,  so  I am  resolved  to  continue  your  majes- 
ty’s loyal  and  faithful  subject,  and  to  serve  you  in  whatever  I can 
with  a good  conscience  ; but  as  for  renouncing  the  covenant  and 
taking  the  declaration,  that  I can  not  do  with  a safe  and  good 
conscience.”  And  when  Lauderdale — afraid  lest  his  enemy 
Middleton  should  obtain  the  office  of  treasurer — urged  him  to 
take  the  declaration,  by  the  argument  that  he  would  thus,  by  re- 
taining his  place,  be  in  a better  capacity  for  promoting  the  inter- 
ests of  the  nonconformists  than  he  could  be  in  a private  station, 
he  replied,  like  a man  of  principle,  that  he  was  taught  not  to  do 
evil  that  good  might  come.f  Resigning  his  situation  as  lord  high 
treasurer,  he  retired  to  his  house  at  Struthers,  and  spent  the  re- 
mainder of  his  days  in  privacy.  “He  was  a man,”  says  Doug- 
las, “ of  great  virtue,  of  good  abilities,  and  of  an  exemplary  life 
in  all  respects.  He  died  at  Tyninghame  in  1676,  aged  about 
eighty.”! 

Lady  Anne’s  mother  was  also  eminent  for  virtue  and  piety. 
Row  speaks  of  her  as  “ the  earl  of  Crawford’s  most  religious 
lady,  who  was  deservedly  praised  of  all  who  knew  her  and  he 
informs  us  that,  “ when  all  about  her,  and  all  Crawford’s  friends 
in  Scotland  were  lamenting  the  loss  of  his  place,  she  heartily 
rejoiced  and  blessed  God  that  he  had  kept  a good  conscience, 
and  himself  free  of  perjury  and  covenant  breaking,  &c.,  trusting 
in  God  that  he  would  provide  for  him  and  his.”||  Robert  Blair, 
who  knew  her  personally,  speaking  of  her  on  his  death-bed, 
said,  “ My  Lady  Crawford,  set  her  alone,  set  her  alone  among 
women.”^ 

Lady  Anne,  thus  descended  from  godly  parents,  enjoyed  the 
inestimable  benefit  of  a religious  education  ; and  her  parents  had 
the  satisfaction  of  witnessing  the  fruits  of  their  instructions  and 
example  in  the  eminence  of  her  piety,  which  she  exemplified 

By  the  fifth  act  of  the  second  session  of  parliament,  1662,  the  declaration  was 
ordained  to  be  taken  by  all  admitted  to  any  public  trust  or  office  under  his  majesty's 
government  in  Scotland,  and  those  already  in  office  were  also  required  to  subscribe  it, 

t Row's  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  441.  {:  Douglas’s  Peerage  vol.  i.,  p.  386. 

y Ibid.,  p.  442.  § Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  495. 


DUCHESS  OF  ROTHES. 


#^201 


thronghout  life  by  a conversation  becoming  tlie  gospel.  The 
fervor  of  her  devotion,  the  benevolence  of  her  disposition,  the 
humility  of  her  demeanor,  and  the  sanctity  of  her  deportment, 
are  all  honorably  mentioned  by  her  cotemporaries.  Law  de- 
scribes her  as  “ a discreet,  wise,  virtuous,  and  good  lady.”*  And 
others  who  knew  her,  speak  in  the  highest  terms  of  her  Chris- 
tian excellence.  In  her  youth,  which  was  cotemporaneous  with 
the  best  days  of  the  covenant,  she  was  strictly  educated  in  the 
presbyterian  faith,  to  which  she  continued  to  adhere  in  its  every 
variety  of  fortune,  in  its  adversity,  as  well  as  in  its  prosperity. 
After  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  she  was  exposed,  by  the  cir- 
cumstances in  which  she  was  placed,  to  great  temptations  to 
become  indifferent  or  hostile  to  the  principles  of  presbytery. 
Her  husband,  John,  sixth  earl  of  Rothes,  to  whoni^she  had  been 
previously  married,  was  a member  of  the  persecuting  government 
of  Charles,  and  she  was  under  the  necessity  of  mingling,  to  a 
considerable  extent,  with  the  unprincipled  and  persecuting  states- 
men of  that  period.  But  her  convictions  and  feelings  remained 
unaltered,  and  the  ejected  ministers,  on  whose  side  her  sympa- 
thies were  enlisted,  she  was  ever  ready,  to  the  utmost  of  her 
ability,  to  befriend.  Some  of  them  she  succeeded  in  continuing 
in  their  charges  after  their  persecutors  had  marked  them  out  for 
ejectment.  Mr.  Black,  minister  of  Leslie,  for  example,  a man 
whom  she  highly  esteemed,  and  under  whose  ministry  she  sat 
when  residing  at  Leslie  house,  was,  though  a nonconformist, 
through  her  intercession  with  the  bishop  of  Dunkeld,  continued 
in  the  exercise  of  his  ministry  in  his  own  parish,  when  that  pre- 
late, in  1664,  summarily  deposed  all  the  other  nonconforming 
ministers  in  his  diocese. f The  friendly  interest  she  took  in  the 
persecuted  ministers,  she  evinced  in  many  other  ways.  “ Rich  in 
good  works,  ready  to  distribute,  willing  to  communicate,”  she 
often  ministered  to  their  temporal  necessities,  and  entertained 
them  with  hospitality  and  kindness  when  they  visited  her  at  Les- 
lie house.  On  these  occasions  they  endeavored  to  keep  out  of 
the  eye  of  the  duke,  for,  though  not  naturally  inclined  to  cruelty, 
yet,  from  political  considerations,  he  put  on  the  appearance  of 
severity.  He  was  not,  however,  ignorant  that  they  were  harbored 
and  reset  by  the  duchess,  but  he  connived  at  them  on  her  ac- 
count ; and  on  happening,  as  he  sometimes  did  happen,  to  see 
any  of  them  about  the  house,  being  a man  of  humor,  he  was  in 
the  habit  of  saying  to  her,  “ My  lady,  I would  advise  you  to  keep 
* Law's  Memorials,  p.  202.  t Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  473. 


202 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  OVENANT. 


your  chickens  in  about,  else  I may  pick  up  some  of  them.”* 
Other  anecdotes  of  a similar  kind  are  still  current,  and  have  been 
recorded  by  Miss  Strickland,  in  her  very  interesting  work,  en- 
titled ‘‘  Lives  of  the  Queens  of  England.”  After  noticing  that 
the  duchess  “ favored  the  doctrines  of  the  covenanters,  and,  as 
far  as  she  could,  protected  their  preachers,  who  were  frequently 
concealed  in  the  neighborhood  of  Leslie  house,”  she  adds,  “ The 

duke never  sent  out  his  officers  to  apprehend  any  of 

these  persons  without  previously  endeavoring  to  provide  for  their 
escape,  by  giving  a significant  hint  to  his  compassionate  duchess 
in  these  words,  ‘ My  hawks  will  be  out  to-night,  my  lady — so 
you  had  better  take  care  of  your  blackbirds  !’  The  local  tradi- 
tions of  Leslie  add,  that  the  signal  by  which  her  grace  warned 
her  spiritual  proteges  of  their  danger,  was  a white  sheet  sus- 
pended from  one  of  the  trees  on  the  brow  of  the  hill  behind  the 
house,  which  could  be  seen  from  a considerable  distance.  Other 
telegraphic  signs  the  good  lady  had,  no  doubt,  to  intimate  the 
absence  of  her  spouse,  when  they  might  safely  come  forth  and 
preach  to  their  hill-side  congregation.”! 

Nor  was  she  backward  to  intercede  with  the  duke  and  the  other 
members  of  the  government  for  the  persecuted  ministers.  Well 
assured  of  her  friendly  disposition,  they  confidently  applied  to 
her  to  exert  in  their  behalf  the  influence  which,  from  her  situa- 
tion, she  had  with  the  duke  and  the  other  members  of  the  privy 
council.  An  instance  of  this  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Robert  Wylie, 
when  he  was  indulged  minister  of  Fenwick,  is  preserved  among 
his  MSS.,  which  form  a part  of  Wodrow’s  Collections.  All  the 
indulged  ministers  having,  on  the  3d  of  September,  1675,  got  a 
charge  of  horning  to  pay  their  respective  proportions  of  the  ordi- 
nary fees  due  for  the  parishes  where  they  resided,  to  the  clerk 
and  bursar  of  the  diocesan  synod  of  Glasgow,  Mr.  Robert  Wylie, 
with  several  others,  refused,  from  scruples  of  conscience,  to  make 
payment.^  He  accordingly  applied  for  a suspension,  and  sent  a 
petition  to  the  privy  council,  praying  for  relief  from  that  imposi- 
tion ; and,  at  the  same  time,  he  transmitted  a copy  of  the  petition 
to  the  duchess,  to  give  her  an  idea  of  the  case,  accompanied  with 
a letter,  requesting  her  friendly  intercessions  with  the  lords  of 

* M‘Crie’s  Memoirs  ofVeitch  and  Brysson,  p.  295.  Among  other  instances  of 
the  persecuted  finding  shelter  in  similar  situations,  it  may  be  mentioned  that,  pre- 
vious to  the  civil  wars,  while  Dr.  Scott,  dean  of  York,  was  employed  at  cards,  or 
other  games,  to  which  he  was  much  addicted,  Mrs.  Scott  was  attending  a conven- 
ticle in  another  room ; the  dean’s  house  being  reckoned  the  safest  place  for  holding 
such  assemblies. — Brooke’s  Lives  of  the  Puritans,  vol.  iii.,  p.  528. 

t Vol.  ix.,  p.  117,  t Wodrow'fl  History,  vol.  ii.,  297. 


DUCHESS  OF  ROTHES. 


203 


his  majesty’s  privy  council  in  furtherance  of  his  petition.  The 
letter,  which  is  written  in  a tone  that  bespeaks  the  confidence  he 
reposed  in  her  sympathy  and  friendship,  is  as  follows  : — 

‘‘  Fenwick,  2d  December,  1675. 

Madam  : I humbly  crave  pardon  that  I presume  to  trouble 
your  ladyship  with  any  petty  business  that  concerns  me  ; but  be- 
ing desirous  to  live  quietly  and  with  bosom-peace,  to  close  my 
days  in  the  work  of  the  gospel,  I hope  it  will  not  offend  your 
ladyship  that  I entreat  for  your  honor’s  help  to  hold  off  the  incon- 
veniences that  may  apparently  fall  upon  me,  if  not  prevented. 
Madam,  the  matter  is  this  : I am  charged  with  letters  of  horning 
to  pay  fees  to  the  clerk  of  the  bishop’s  synod,  and  dues  to  a bur- 
sar of  prelatic  choice  ; which,  considering  the  presbyterian  prin- 
ciples grounded  on  the  Scriptures,  and  the  standing  obligation  of 
the  oath  of  God  upon  the  conscience,  I have  no  freedom  to  do ; 
and  therefore  sent  for  a suspension  of  the  charges,  which  I hear 
was  granted,  but  the  clerks  are  loath  to  give  it  out  until  they 
would  know  the  council’s  mind.*  Being  desirous  to  leave  no 
means  unessayed  to  hold  weights  off  my  conscience  and  troubles 
off  my  person,  I have  sent  a petition,  to  be  presented  to  the  most 
honorable  lords  of  his  majesty’s  privy  council,  holding  forth  the 
grounds  of  my  refusal,  and  supplicating  that  their  lordships  would 
grant  me  the  free  exercise  of  my  ministry,  with  reservation  of  my 
principles  and  liberty  of  my  judgment,  and  that  their  lordships 
would  be  pleased  to  discharge  all  legal  procedure  against  me,  as 
the  petition  does  more  fully  purport ; a copy  whereof,  for  your 
ladyship’s  information,  I have  herewith  enclosed,  knowing  that 
the  draught  will  be  kept  as  a secret  with  your  honor,  and  made 
use  of  only  for  your  private  information,  that  your  ladyship  may 
the  better  know  the  affair,  and  how  to  speak  to  it  as  occasion  of- 
fers. And  now,  madam,  my  humble  request  to  your  ladyship  is, 
that  you  would  be  pleased  to  speak  to  such  members  of  the  coun- 
cil as  your  honor  thinks  convenient,  in  order  to  the  inclining  of 
them  to  give  a favorable  answer  unto  my  petition,  that  now,  in 
my  old  days,  when  I am  laboring  under  manifold  infirmities,  I 
may  have  liberty  to  close  the  latter  part  of  my  time  in  the  peace- 
able preachings  of  the  gospel,  without  pressing  me  with  imposi- 
tions grating  upon  my  conscience,  and  putting  a crazy  person  to 
unnecessary  tossings.  Madam,  I do  again  beg  pardon  for  this 
presumption  ; and  wishing  all  abounding  of  grace,  all  the  bles- 

* The  difficulty  of  obtaining  a suspension  arose  from  the  fact  that  the  payment  of 
the  clerk's  and  bursar’s  fees  was  required  by  the  council’s  act  of  indulgence,  Sep- 
tember, 2,  1672. 


204 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


sings  of  the  everlasting  covenant  to  be  plentifully  poured  out 
upon  your  ladyship  and  all  yours,  I rest,  madam,  your  ladyship’s, 

‘‘  [Thomas  Wylie.]”* 

That  the  friendly  endeavors  of  this  lady  would  not  be  wanting 
to  promote  the  success  of  Mr.  Wylie’s  petition  there  can  be  little 
doubt,  from  what  we  know  of  her  character  ; and  her  interces- 
sions, judging  from  the  result,  were  not  without  success.  The 
relief  which  Mr.  Wylie  so  earnestly  solicited  was  at  length 
granted  by  the  government ; for  in  a new  proclamation  issued  on 
the  1st  of  March  next  year,  two  of  the  rules,  according  to  which 
the  indulged  ministers,  by  the  indulgence  1672,  were  required  to 
act,  are  omitted,  the  one  regarding  their  waiting  on  diocesan 
meetings,  and  the  other  respecting  their  paying  dues  to  the  clerk 
and  bursar  of  the  diocesan  synod.  Mr.  Wylie,  however,  contin- 
ued to  feel  uneasy  under  the  other  restrictions  of  the  indulgence. f 

On  the  introduction  of  field-preaching  into  Fife,  the  duchess 
used  to  attend  these  much  maligned  and  proscribed  meetings. 
One  of  the  places  which,  in  those  troublous  times,  she  frequented 
to  hear  the  sermons  of  the  field-preachers,  was  Glenvale,  a beau- 
tiful sequestered  spot  in  the  parish  of  Strathmiglo,  Fifeshire, 
“ lying  between  West  Lomond  and  Bishop  Hill.  About  the  mid- 
dle of  the  valley  it  expands  into  a fine  amphitheatre  on  the  south, 
capable  of  containing  many  thousand  persons ; on  the  north  side 
is  a large  projecting  rock,  which  is  said  to  have  been  occupied 
by  the  ejected  ministers  as  a pulpit.”];  In  this  favorite  place  of 
resort,  which,  in  point  of  romantic  scenery,  may  bear  compari- 
son with  the  wild  recess  in  Cartland  craigs,  where  the  cov- 
enanters of  the  west  met  for  the  same  purpose,  immense  mul- 
titudes from  all  the  surrounding  districts  often  assembled  for 
the  worship  of  God.  “In  the  year  1678,”  to  quote  from  a 
well-attested  Account  of  the  Sufferings  of  the  Presbyterians  in 
Kinross-shire,”  the  field-meetings  were  kept  very  frequently 
through  the  whole  shire,  but  oftener  in  Glenvale,  because  it  was 
the  centre  of  that  large  congregation,  which  extended  to  Cupar  of 
Fife  on  the  east,  to  Kirkaldy  on  the  south,  to  Salin  and  Dollar  on 
the  west,  and  to  Perth  on  the  north.  There  were  five  or  six  par- 
ishes engaged  together  to  keep  up  the  preaching  of  the  gospel 
among  themselves  ; and  by  turns  each  parish  sent  to  Edinburgh 

Mr.  Wylie’s  MSS.  among  the  Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxx.,  4to,  No.  16.  There 
is  no  signatnre  to  the  letter.  It  is  addressed  on  the  back,  “ For  the  Countess  of 
Rothes.”  ^ t Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  336. 

t M‘Crie’s  Memoirs  of  Veitch,  &c.,  p.  295.  M'Ciie’s  Sketches  of  Scottish  Church 
History,  2d  edition,  p.  420. 


DUCHESS  OF  ROTHES. 


205 


and  brought  a minister,  so  that  they  seldom  wanted  a sermon  on 
the  Lord’s  day.”*  In  attending  these  “ seditious  meetings”  and 
“ rendezvouses  of  rebellion,”  as  they  were  stigmatized  by  the 
privy  council,  the  duchess  incurred  the  heavy  penalties  under 
which  they  were  interdicted  ; but,  like  others  of  the  ladies  of  the 
members  of  the  government,  who  were  led  by  curiosity  or  piety 
to  field-conventicles,  she  was  overlooked,  the  council  not  deem- 
ing it  prudent  to  carry  the  persecution  into  the  bosom  of  their 
own  families.  The  leniency  which  the  duke  of  Rothes  exer- 
cised toward  these  field-meetings  in  Fife,  it  is  believed,  was  ow- 
ing in  no  small  degree,  to  their  being  favored  and  countenanced 
by  the  duchess.  On  one  occasion  when  forty  individuals,  who 
had  been  apprehended  for  a conventicle  in  Glenvale,  were  brought 
before  him  in  Leslie,  and  he  was  asked  what  was  to  be  done 
with  them  : “ Put  them,”  said  he,  “ in  Bailie  Walker’s  back  room, 
the  place  they  all  like  so  well.”  The  bailie  was  a religious  man, 
and  meetings  for  social  prayer  and  conference  were  often  held  in 
his  back  room.  When  asked  what  further  orders  he  had  to  give 
respecting  them,  the  duke  answered,  “ Give  them  plenty  of  meat 
and  drink,  and  set  them  about  their  business  in  the  morning.”!  He 
knew  that  Glenvale  was  a favorite  place  of  resort  for  his  own 
lady,  and  that  these  poor  individuals  brought  before  him  had  done 
nothing  to  merit  punishment,  were  guilty  in  fact  of  holding  no 
principles,  and  following  no  practices,  for  which  she  might  not 
have  been  equally  impeached. 

An  evidence  of  the  tender-hearted  sympathy  of  the  duchess 
with  the  persecuted  covenanters  is  furnished  in  the  following 
anecdote  : Archbishop  Sharp,  having  on  one  occasion  come  to 
dine  with  the  duke,  complained  to  him  at  dinner  that  two  of  his 
tenants,  David  and  James  Walker,  were  keepers  of  conventicles. 
This  complaint  the  archbishop  strongly  and  vehemently  urged, 
though  the  duchess,  of  whose  attachment  to  the  presbyterian  in- 
terest he  could  not  be  ignorant,  was  present ; for  deference  to  her 
feelings  was  overborne  by  his  inveterate  malignity  against  these 
worthy  men.  The  duke,  who  expressed  his  surprise  at  this  in- 
formation, said,  that  “ he  should  take  an  effectual  course  with 
them,  and  see  them  both  stringed.”!  The  archbishop  insisted 
that  he  should  not  forget  them,  for  they  were  incendiaries  through 
all  Fife  ; upon  which  the  duke  gave  orders  to  his  man-servant, 
who  was  standing  at  his  back,  to  send  immediately  to  the  town 
of  Leslie,  in  the  neighborhood  of  which  they  lived,  and  bring 

* Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxxiii.,  folio,  No.  143. 

t M'Crie's  Memoirs  of  Veitch,  &c.,  p.  295. 

18 


t That  is,  hanged. 


206 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


them  down  to  him  after  dinner,  promising  to  the  archbishop  that 
they  should  give  the  government  no  further  trouble.  To  this  dis- 
course, the  duchess,  though  it  appears  she  made  no  remarks,  lis- 
tened with  great  pain — the  two  men,,  who  were  eminent  for  piety, 
being  her  Christian  friends,  for  whom  she  entertained  a high  es- 
teem ; nor  had  she  much  respect  for  Sha^,  who  besides  being 
first  a traitor  to  the  church  of  Scotland,  and  then  its  persecutor, 
had  injured  her  father  for  being  a more  honest  man  than  himself. 
It  may  therefore  be  easily  believed,  as  Wodrow  observes,  that 
“ this  spoiled  my  lady  duchess’s  dinner.”  She  was  aware  that 
the  duke,  who  was  ambitious  of  place  and  power,  had,  to  secure 
the  favor  of  Sharp,  whose  influence  at  court  was  great,  and  to 
keep  the  prelatic  clergy  at  his  devotion,  done  acts  of  violence 
which  he  was  not  naturally  inclined  to  commit ; and  was  therefore 
afraid  that  in  the  present  instance,  to  gratify  the  prelate,  he  would 
subject  these  good  men  to  persecution.  Her  fears  were,  however, 
happily  disappointed.  The  two  nonconformists  immediately  came 
down  to  the  palace  at  Leslie.  After  dinner,  the  duke  accom- 
panied Sharp  to  his  coach ; and,  on  being  again  reminded  by  the 
prelate  not  to  spare  the  two  delinquents,  he  told  him  they 
were  come,  and  assured  him  he  should  not  fail  to  handle  them 
severely.  But  on  his  coming  up  stairs  and  calling  for  them,  he 
simply  asked  them,  in  a friendly  way,  the  prices  of  the  markets, 
what  grain  it  was  best  for  him  to  sow  in  such  and  such  parts  of 
his  lands  about  Leslie,  and  similar  questions,  after  which  he  dis- 
missed them  without  any  mark  of  displeasure  or  asking  them  a 
single  question  in  reference  to  the  subject  as  to  which  he  had 
professedly  brought  them  to  his  house.  “ The  duchess,”  says 
Wodrow,  “ retired  from  dinner  in  deep  concern  for  the  men,  and 
gave  orders  to  a servant  to  bring  them  in  to  her,  when  the  duke 
parted  with  them,  by  a back  gallery.  Accordingly  they  came. 
The  duchess  was  all  in  tears,  and  almost  trembling,  asked  what 
had  passed.  They  told  her,  ‘ Nothing  but  kindness.’  Whether 
this  was  to  be  attributed  to  the  duchess’s  prayers  in  their  behalf, 
or  to  the  duke’s  natural  temper,  who  was  not  inclined  to  violence, 
I am  not  to  determine  ; but  the  fact  is  certain.”* 

The  duchess  was  greatly  tried  in  her  domestic  life.  Beside 
being  connected  with  the  persecuting  government  of  Charles, 
the  duke  was  unprincipled  and  profligate,  devoting  himself 
“ without  either  restraint  or  decency,  to  all  the  pleasures  of 

Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  iv.,  p.  42.  Mr.  John  Loudon,  who  was  some  time  a 
tutor  in  the  family  of  Rothes,  and  afterward  a minister  of  the  church  of  Scotland; 
was  Wodrow’s  informer.  He  received  this  anecdote  from  the  duchess  herselL 


DUCHESS  OF  ROTHES. 


207 


wine  and  women.”*  “ He  gave  himself,”  says  Fountainhall, 

great  liberty  in  all  sort  of  pleasures  and  debaucheries,  particu- 
larly with  Lady  Anne,  sister  of  the  first  duke  of  Gordon,  whom 
he  took  along  with  him  in  his  progress  through  the  country,  with 
hat  and  feather ; and  by  his  bad  example  affected  many  of  the 
nobility  and  gentry.”!  But  trying  as  this  was  to  the  duchess, 
the  admirable  prudence  and  gentleness  which  marked  her  temper 
and  conduct  under  it  all,  so  impressed  the  duke  as  to  make  him 
ashamed  of  the  manner  in  which  he  was  treating  her.  ‘‘  It  was,” 
says  Kirkton,  “ confidently  reported  that  his  infamous  converse 
with  Lady  Anne  Gordon  touched  his  own  conscience  so  much, 
that  one  day,  being  under  the  dint  of  his  own  conviction,  and 
reflecting  upon  his  misbehavior  toward  his  worthy  lady  (whom 
he  could  not  but  admire),  he  threw  all  the  wretched  love-tokens 
his  miss  had  given  him  into  the  fire,  upon  suspicion  and  fear  he 
was  detained  her  captive  by  the  power  of  witchcraft,  as  very 
many  said  he  was.”! 

Still  more  calculated  to  excite  in  the  mind  of  the  duchess,  the 
most  poignant  distress,  were  the  circumstances  connected  with 
his  death.  His  days  may  be  said  to  have  been  shortened  by  his 
intemperance.  So  strong  was  his  constitution  that  he  could  out- 
drink two  or  three  sets  of  drunkards  in  succession,  and  after  the 
greatest  excesses  an  hour  or  two  of  sleep  so  completely  recruit- 
ed him,  that  he  could  go  about  business  without  any  apparent 
disorder  in  either  body  or  mind.  This  could  not  always  last ; it 
ultimately  undermined  his  vigorous  constitution,  producing  such 
diseases  of  stomach,  that  when  not  hot  within,  and  full  of  strong 
drink,  he  had  perpetual  colics,  so  that  he  was  always  either 
sick  or  druiik.il  He  was  seized  with  his  last  illness  in  Edin- 
burgh. On  his  death-bed  his  conscience  was  awakened  ; and 
as  he  looked  on  his  past  life,  and  forward  to  a coming  judgment, 
the  horrors  of  despair  settled  on  his  soul.  He  sent  for  some  of 
his  lady’s  ministers — those  men  who,  when  entertained  by  her 
at  Leslie  house,  were  afraid  to  meet  him  in  the  days  of  his  ro- 
bust health — he  sent  for  them  now,  that,  if  possible,  they  might 
minister  relief  to  his  troubled  conscience.  Two  of  them,  Mr. 
John  Carstairs,  and  Mr.  George  Johnston,  who  were  then  in 
Edinburgh,  came  to  Holyrood  house,  where  he  lay ; and  while 
they  spoke  to  him  freely  of  the  sinfulness  of  his  former  ways,  as 
fidelity  demanded,  true  to  their  office,  as  messengers  of  peace, 

Burnet’s  Owti  Times,  vol.  i.,  p.  175. 

t Fountainhall’s  Diary,  quoted  in  Kirkton's  History,  by  tlie  editor,  p.  204. 

t Kirkton's  History,  p.  212.  ||  Buonet'e  Own  Times,  vol.  U p.  175. 


208 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


they  told  him  that  pardon  and  mercy  were  to  be  obtained  through 
the  blood  of  Jesus  for  the  greatest  sinners  of  Adam’s  race,  even 
at  the  eleventh  hour.  Mr.  Carstairs,  a man  unequalled  in  his  day 
in  the  gift  of  prayer,  engaged  in  that  exercise  ; and  so  weighty 
and  affecting  were  his  sentences,  as  to  draw  tears  from  almost 
every  one  present.  But  all  availed  not  to  pacify  the  conscience 
of  the  dying  nobleman.  He  said  to  Carstairs,  ‘‘We  all  thought 
little  of  what  that  man  Cargill  did  in  excommunicating  us,  but  I 
find  that  sentence  binding  upon  me  now,  and  it  will  bind  to  eter- 
nity.” The  duke  of  Hamilton,  who  witnessed  the  scene,  deeply 
moved,  said,  “ When  in  health,  we  hunt  and  persecute  these 
men,  but  when  dying,  we  call  for  them : this  is  melancholy 
work  !”  The  dying  duke  expired  at  Holyrood  house,  on  the  27th 
July,  1681,  in  the  51st  year  of  his  age.  His  funeral  obsequies 
were  performed  with  unusual  pomp.  His  body  was  first  pri- 
vately brought  up  from  Holyrood  house  to  the  high  church  of  St. 
Giles,  accompanied  with  a train  of  coaches  ; thence  it  was  con- 
ducted, with  the  greatest  magnificence,  to  the  royal  chapel  of 
Holyrood  house,  by  a numerous  procession,  the  order  of  which 
is  given  by  Arnot  in  his  history  of  Edinburgh.*  From  the  chapel 
of  Holyrood  house,  it  was  next  conveyed,  with  the  same  funereal 
pomp,  to  Leith,  thence  it  was  transported  to  Burntisland ; and 
the  day  after,  it  was  met  by  the  gentlemen  of  the  county  of  Fife 
(of  which  he  was  high  sheriff),  by  whom  it  was  accompanied  to 
the  family  burying-place  at  Leslie.  The  body  was  laid  in  the 
grave  with  sound  of  open  trumpets,  and  the  honors  placed  above 
the  grave.  This  superfluity  of  display  was  common  during  the 
reign  of  Charles  H.  at  the  funerals  of  the  great.  Under  that 
reign  it  was  a matter  of  policy,  in  prosecution  of  the  designs  of 
the  government  for  the  establishment  of  absolute  power,  to  en- 
courage every  circumstance  which  could  mark  the  distinction  of 
ranks,  and  hence  the  nobility  and  gentry  gratified  their  vanity 
not  only  by  the  splendor  of  their  retinues,  but  also  by  the  extrava- 
gant pomp  with  which  they  conducted  the  funerals  of  their  de- 
parted friends,  as  if  they  could  thus  keep  up  the  distinctions  of 
rank  and  elevated  station  after  death  had  levelled  them  in  the 
dust. 

“ Sorry  pre-eminence  of  high  descent 
Above  the  vulgar  bom,'’ t 

Pp.‘l68,  611. 

t To  such  an  extent,  however,  did  this  foolish  vanity  and  absurd  extravagance 
proceed,  that  the  parliament  which  met  at  Edinburgh,  September  13,  1681,  passed 
an  “ act  restraining  the  exorbitant  expenses  of  marriages,  baptisms,  and  burials." — 
See  the  acts  of  the  parliament  of  Scotland. 


DUCHESS  OF  ROTHES. 


209 


The  duchess  had  to  the  duke,  two  daughters,  Lady  Margaret, 
and  Lady  Christian.  Lady  Margaret,  the  eldest,  became  on  her 
father’s  death,  countess  of  Rothes,  having  inherited  his  extensive 
property  in  the  counties  of  Aberdeen,  Elgin,  Fife,  Forfar,  Inver- 
ness, Kincardine,  and  Perth,  and  the  earldom  of  Rothes,  but  not 
his  other  titles  of  duke  of  Rothes,  marquis  of  Ballinbreich,  &c., 
which,  being  limited  to  the  heirs  male  of  his  body,  became  ex- 
tinct at  his  death.  She  was  married,  in  1674,  to  Charles,  fifth 
earl  of  Haddington,  the  marriage  contract  being  dated  the  7th  of 
October  that  year.  The  second  daughter.  Lady  Christian,  was 
married  first  to  .James,  third  marquis  of  Montrose,  to  whom  she 
had  issue,  and  afterward,  in  1687,  to  Sir  John  Bruce,  of  Kinross, 
baronet,  to  whom  she  had  no  children.* 

Amid  all  her  domestic  trials,  the  duchess  found  much  comfort 
in  her  children,  who,  following  her  instructions  and  example, 
adorned  the  high  stations  they  filled,  and  were  patterns  to  their 
sex.  Fler  eldest  daughter,  in  particular,  who  succeeded  the 
duke,  a lady  of  a cultivated  understanding,  and  of  much  practical 
wisdom,  was  almost  unequalled  in  her  day  for  the  depth  of  her 
piety,  and  the  extent  of  her  beneficence. 

Among  the  nonconforming  ministers  whom  the  duchess  be- 
friended and  patronized,  was  Mr.  Alexander  Wedderburn,  one 
of  the  most  popular  ministers  of  his  day,  who  was  ejected  from 
Forgan,  in  Fife,  after  the  Restoration,  and  who  subsequently  be- 
came indulged  minister  at  Kilmarnock.  Previous  to  his  death, 
which  took  place  about  the  close  of  October,  1678,t  this  excellent 
minister,  having  consented  to  the  posthumous  publication  of  a series 
of  sermons  which  he  had  delivered  upon  2 Samuel  xxiii.  5,  and 
which,  after  his  death,  were  published  partly  from  short-hand 
notes  taken  by  some  of  the  hearers,  and  partly  from  his  own 
notes,  it  was  his  desire  that  the  volume  should  be  dedicated  to 
the  duchess.  But  as  before  its  publication  she  had  been  removed 
by  death,  Mr.  Wedderburn’s  widow,  Helen  Turnbull,  dedicated 
it  to  the  duchess’s  daughter,  the  truly  noble  Margaret,  countess 
of  Rothes,”  which  she  was  induced  to  do  not  only  in  considera- 
tion of  the  Christian  excellence  of  that  lady,  but  also  from  respect 
to  the  memory  of  her  sainted  mother ; and  as  a memorial  of  the 
duchess  we  now  quote  it.  “ Madam,”  says  Mrs.  Wedderburn, 

* Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  ii.,  p.  432. 

t The  illness  which  issued  in  his  death  was  brought  on  by  a thrust  be  received 
from  the  butt  of  the  musket  of  a Highlander  during  the  invasion  of  the  west  by  the 
Highland  host  in  1678,  at  the  time  when  he  was  interceding  with  these  savages  to 
spare  the  town  of  Kilmarnock,  which  tliey  were  resolved  to  plunder.  His  last  ill- 
ness continued  about  four  montlts. 

18* 


210 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


‘‘  before  that  pious  and  eminent  person,  the  duchess  of  Rothes, 
your  ladyship’s  renowned  mother,  was  by  death  remoA^ed,  I de- 
signed, according  to  the  intention  of  my  husband  (who  is  now 
entered  into  the  joy  of  his  Lord),  to  dedicate  this  part  of  his 
labors  to  her  grace.  And  now,  when  these  papers,  by  advice 
of  faithful  and  godly  ministers,  are  to  be  exposed  to  public  view, 
I judged  it  my  duty  to  pay  that  respect  to  her  grace’s  memory  as 
to  prefix  your  ladyship’s  name  thereunto  (which,  no  doubt,  if  my 
husband  were  alive,  he  himself  would  have  done),  which  I the  more 
confidently  adventure  upon,  as  that  I know  your  ladyship  to  be  the 
lively  portraiture  of  the  graces  and  virtues  of  your  noble  and  now 
glorified  mother,  and  to  be  of  such  wisdom  and  prudence,  humil- 
ity and  self-denial,  as  to  excuse  anything  of  unsuitableness  that 
may  be  in  this  for  one  of  my  station  and  sex.” 

A feAv  brief  notices  of  Margaret,  countess  of  Rothes,  may  form 
an  appropriate  sequel  to  the  preceding  sketch  of  her  mother. 
Crawford  describes  her  as  “ a lady  of  incomparable  piety  and 
goodness  and  Wodrow  speaks  of  her  as  that  “ excellent  lady 
who  scarce  had  a parallel  for  religion,  and  everything  good,  in 
her  age.”t  Having  embraced  the  same  religious  sentiments  as 
her  mother,  she  was  a friend  to  the  persecuted  presbyterians,  of 
which  the  government  were  well  aware,  and  as  an  instance  of 
the  arts  resorted  to  for  depriving  the  sufferers  of  shelter  from 
every  quarter,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  privy  council,  who 
found  sheriff  courts  a powerful  means  of  carrying  on  the  perse- 
cution, persuaded  that  on  succeeding  her  father,  she  would  ap- 
point a sheriff  depute  for  Fife,  who  would  befriend  the  sufferers, 
had  recourse  to  a most  dishonorable  expedient,  in  order  to  deprive 
her  of  the  power  of  appointing  a substitute  to  hold  such  a court 
in  her  name.  On  the  6th  of  October,  1681,  the  privy  council 
‘‘  order  intimation  to  be  made  to  her  by  the  earl  of  Haddington, 
that  she  can  not  hold  any  sheriff  court,  nor  any  in  her  name, 
until  she  take  the  test.”  ‘‘  The  parliament  in  one  of  their  acts,” 
says  Wodrow,  “ as  we  have  seen,  except  the  heirs  of  the  duke 
from  some  hardships  of  this  nature, j:  yet  the  council  urge  this 
excellent  lady  with  this  oath,  as  what  they  knew  she  would  never 

* Crawford’s  Peerage  of  Scotland,  p.  430.  t Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  300. 

t Wodrow  refers  to  the  act  concerning  public  debts,  passed  September  17,  1681, 
discharging  such  noblemen,  barons,  and  bur£?esses,  as  “ during  the  time  of  the  late 
troubles  and  rebellion,  did  give  their  bonds  for  several  great  sums  of  money,”  “of 
the  said  debts  and  bonds  granted  thereupon,”  upon  condition  of  their  taking  the  test, 
“excepting  always  the  heirs,  executors,  and  successors  of  the  deceased  duke  of 
Rothes,  late  lord-chancellor,  who,  in  respect  of  his  eminent  loyalty  and  service  to 
bis  majesty,  are  hereby  absolutely  exonered  and  discharged  of  Uie  said  debts,  with- 
out necessity  of  taking  the  aforesaid  test,  upon  the  account  aforesaid,  allenarly.” 


DUCHESS  OF  ROTHES, 


211 


take,  that  the  offices  might  fall  into  the  managers’  hands.”*  The 
council  succeeded  in  their  design.  Both  the  countess  and  the 
earl  of  Haddington,  her  husband,  refused  to  take  the  test.  Ac- 
cordingly the  sheriffdom  of  Fife  was  lodged  in  the  hands  of  the 
earl  of  Balcarres,  who,  in  that  same  year,  appointed  Alexander 
Malcolm  sheriff  depute  of  that  county,  a man  who  proved  as  se- 
vere a presser  of  conformity  as  the  government  could  desire, 
subjecting  such  as  refused  to  take  the  test  to  severe  oppression 
by  fines,  imprisonment,  and  other  kinds  of  suffering.! 

Wodrow,  in  his  Analecta,  under  the  year  1730,  has  preserved 
the  following  memorial  of  this  lady : “I  am  told  that  the  late 
duchess  or  countess  of  Rothes,  M^as  one  of  the  most  extraordinary 
persons  for  religion  and  good  sense,  and  eminent  acts  of  charity, 
that  was  in  the  last  age  ; that  her  life,  could  it  be  recovered,  would 
make  a beautiful  figure  in  our  biography.  I have  little  hope  of 
recovering  it.  In  the  late  dear  years  1697  and  1698,  she  was 
remarkable  for  her  charity.  She  distributed  many  bolls  of  meal 
among  the  poor  every  week,  and  it  was  calculated  that  she  dealt 
out  most  of  the  yearly  rent  of  the  estate  that  way.  She  had  a day 
in  the  week,  Friday,  I think,  when  sick  and  indisposed  persons 
came  to  her  ; and  she  spoke  with  them,  and  gave  them  medicines 
gratis  ; and  some  cheats,  pretending  to  be  objects  of  charity,  she 
discovered,  and  severely  punished  them.  She  was  most  intimate 
with  John  Archer,  Alexander’s  father,  and  many  eminent  Chris- 
tians in  that  neighborhood.  She  was  eminent  in  prayer  and 
wrestling,  and  had  many  singular  answers  of  prayer.  It’s  a pity 
so  little  about  her  can  now  be  recovered.”  J 

The  countess  died  on  the  20th  of  August,  1700.  Sir  James 
Stewart,  lord  advocate  of  Scotland,  after  the  revolution,  says,  in 
a letter  to  Principal  William  Carstairs,  dated  August  22,  1700, 
“ The  good  countess  of  Rothes  died  Tuesday  last,  much  regretted 
by  all,  and  very  deservedly.”  1|  She  was  succeeded  by  her  eldest 
son,  John,  seventh  earl  of  Rothes,  who,  like  his  predecessors  for 
at  least  four  preceding  generations,  was  distinguished  for  the  ex- 
cellence of  his  Christian  character.  He  died  in  1722,  in  the 
prime  of  life,  in  the  full  assurance  of  faith.  A few  hours  before 
his  departure,  he  called  his  children  one  by  one,  and  took  fare- 
well of  each  of  them,  speaking  to  each  in  particular,  and  to  them 
all  for  nearly  two  hours,  with  the  greatest  seriousness  and  solidity, 
recommending  religion  to  them  as  what  alone  would  avail  them, 


Wodrow's  History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  300. 
; Vol.  iv.,  p.  172. 


t Ibid.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  390. 

11  Carstairs’s  State  Papers,  p.  625, 


212 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


when  about  to  pass  from  time  into  eternity.*  The  well-known 
Colonel  Blackadder,  who  was  present  with  him  at  the  last,  says 
that  he  never  witnessed  so  Christian,  calm,  and  courageous  a 
death.  The  colonel  drew  up  an  account  of  his  death-bed  scene, 
which  is  printed  from  the  Wodrow  MSS.,  in  the  Christian  In- 
structor for  November,  1825. 

In  the  preceding  notices  of  the  duchess  of  Rothes,  of  her  pred- 
ecessors and  descendants,  it  is  interesting  and  instructive  to  see 
piety  passing  downward  from  parents  to  children  for  five  succes- 
sive generations.  This  we  are  no  doubt  to  trace  to  the  sovereign 
grace  of  God,  for  genuine  religion  is  not  transmitted  from  parent 
to  child,  as  a healthy  constitution  is  transmitted.  But  it  is  also 
to  be  traced  to  the  instrumentality  of  parents,  and  particularly  of 
religious  mothers,  in  the  godly  upbringing  of  their  children.  The 
duchess  of  Rothes’s  mother,  the  duchess  herself,  her  daughter 
and  her  son,  all  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  the  religious  instructions, 
the  persevering  prayers,  and  the  holy  example  of  godly  mothers. 
To  the  pious  endeavors  of  both  parents  to  instil  the  principles  of 
piety  into  the  minds  of  their  children,  God  has  annexed  a special 
blessing ; but  it  may  be  expected  in  particular  that  the  labors  of 
Christian  mothers  in  this  good  work  will  be  followed  by  the  hap- 
piest effects.  From  their  offspring  being  in  infancy  constantly 
under  their  care,  and  afterward  in  childhood  and  youth  more 
frequently  in  their  society  than  in  that  of  the  other  parent,  mothers 
have  a more  powerful  influence  than  fathers  in  forming  their 
character ; and  how  often,  as  must  be  known  to  all  who  are  but 
slightly  acquainted  with  Christian  biography,  have  those  who 
have  been  distinguished  in  their  day  for  piety  and  extensive  use- 
fulness in  the  church  and  in  the  world,  had  to  trace  their  piety 
and  their  usefulness  to  the  instructions,  counsels,  and  admonitions, 
they  had  received,  in  their  first  and  more  tender  years,  from  their 
God-fearing  mothers ! 

Wodrow’s  Correspondence,  vol.  ii.,  p.  641. 


COUNTESS  OF  CRAWFORD. 


213 


LADY  MARY  JOHNSTON, 

COUNTESS  OF  CRAWFORD. 

Lady  Mary  Johnston  was  the  eldest  daughter  of  James,  earl 
of  Annandale  and  Hartfell,  by  his  wife  Lady  Henrietta  Douglas, 
daughter  of  William,  first  marquis  of  Douglas,  by  his  second  wife. 
Lady  Mary  Gordon.  She  was  married  at  Leith,  on  the  8th  of 
March,  1670,  to  William,  sixteenth  earl  of  Crawford,  and  second 
earl  of  Lindsay,  the  son  of  John,  earl  of  Crawford  and  Lindsay, 
of  whom  some  notices  have  a. ready  been  given,*  and  brother  to 
the  duchess  of  Rothes,  the  subject  of  the  preceding  sketch.!  Her 
husband,  like  his  parents,  was  a nonconformist,  and  great  defer- 
ence was  paid  to  him  by  the  presbyterians.  On  this  account  he 
was,  throughout  the  period  of  the  persecution,  a marked  man; 
and,  from  the  danger  to  which  he  was  exposed,  he  once  intended 
to  go  abroad,  though  he  never  went,  but  lived  in  retirement  till 
the  revolution,  which  brought  him  deliverance  and  honor.! 

The  early  education  and  family  connections  of  this  lady  tended 
tO'  prejudice  her  mind  against  the  suffering  covenanters.  But 
her  marriage  into  a family  distinguished  at  once  for  their  warm 
attachment  to  that  persecuted  body,  and  for  personal  piety,  was 
followed  by  a great  change  upon  both  her  personal  character  and 
religious  sentiments.  She  became,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  a 
genuine  Christian  and  a true  blue  presbyterian.  The  instrument 
of  effecting  this  change  upon  her  was  Mr.  John  Welsh,  a minister 
almost  unequalled  in  the  times  of  persecution,  for  the  Christian 
intrepidity  with  which  he  jeoparded  his  life  on  the  mountains  and 
in  the  moors  of  Scotland,  in  his  ardent  and  indefatigable  zeal  to 
proclaim  to  his  fellow-countrymen  the  unsearchable  riches  of 
Christ,  and  whose  intrepid  labors  of  love  were  blessed  by  the 
Spirit  of  God  for  turning  multitudes  from  disobedience  to  the 
wisdom  of  the  just. 

* See  pp.  199,  200.  t Douglas's  Peerage,  vol.  i.,  pp.  74,  387. 

t He  was  appointed  by  King  William,  president  of  the  parliament,  a commissioner 
of  the  treasury,  and  one  of  the  commission  for  settling  the  government  of  the  church. 
He  was  a man  of  great  political  sagacity,  and  the  most  active  agent  in  effecting  the 
overthrow  of  prelacy  at  the  revolution.  His  correspondence  during  that  eventful 
period  has  been  printed  in  the  “ Melville  and  Levin  Papers.’’  “ His  letters,”  says 
Lord  Lindsay,  who  is  not  disposed  to  overrate  his  merits,  bear  the  stamp  of 
buraing  and  enthusiastic  sincerity,  while  in  point  of  taste,  though  abounding  in 
scriptural  images,  they  are  unusually  graceful  and  free  from  cant,  and  the  impression 
they  leave  is  more  favorable  to  him  than  might  have  been  expected.” — Lord  Lind- 
say’s Lives  of  the  Lindsays,  vol.  ii.,  p.  174. 


214 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1 674-— the  first  three  months  of 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  were  called  “ the  Blink,”  from  the  little 
molestation  then  offered  to  the  ejected  ministers  in  holding  con- 
venticles, whether  in  houses  or  in  the  fields* — Welsh  went  over 
from  Edinburgh  to  Fife  with  his  wife,  where  he  spent  about  six 
weeks  in  preaching,  none  presuming  either  to  pursue  him  from 
Edinburgh,  or  to  lay  hands  on  him  in  Fife,  not  even  Sharp,  who 
had  his  residence  in  that  part  of  the  country,  and  who  of  all  others 
most  thirsted  for  his  blood. f During  that  period  Welsh  had  large 
meetings  both  on  the  sabbath-day  and  on  week-days,  at  which 
many  of  the  gentry,  attracted  by  the  weight  of  his  character  and 
by  his  homely  but  powerful  eloquence,  were  often  present ; the 
most  of  whom  seemed  to  be  impressed  by  the  word,  and  favora- 
bly disposed  to  the  work  in  which  he  was  engaged.^  It  was  at 
this  time  that  Lady  Crawford  had  an  opportunity  of  hearing  him 
preach  for  the  first  time,  in  the  neighborhood  of  her  own  resi- 
dence, Struthers  house, ||  and  his  discourse,  accompanied  by  the 
influence  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  was  the  means  of  turning  her 
from  darkness  to  light,  and  from  the  power  of  Satan  unto  God. 
From  that  day  she  became  an  altered  person;  the  pride  of  her 
heart  was  humbled,  so  that,  like  Mary  in  the  gospel,  she  sat  at 
Jesus’s  feet,  a teachable  disciple,  listening  to  his  voice,  and  in 
the  whole  of  her  subsequent  deportment  she  exhibited  the  living 
marks  of  a child  of  God.  Now,  indeed,  she  had  not  many  years 
to  live,  but  during  the  brief  course  allotted  to  her  on  earth,  she 
exemplified  in  an  eminent  degree  the  power  of  vital  godliness. 
In  her  character  were  combined  the  devotion  of  the  saint  and  the 

* For  the  reasons  of  this  temporary  cessation  from  persecution,  see  p.  182. 

t “ None  was  so  busy  as  Mr.  John  Welsh,  who  this  springy  [1674],  made  a peram- 
bulation over  Fife,  and  there,  in  vacant  churches,  and  sometimes  in  the  fields  at 
Glenvale,  at  Duraquhair,  and  other  places,  gathered  sometimes  armies  together,  for 
which  the  gentry  and  people  both  smarted  very  sore.” — Kirkton’s  Historj%  p.  344. 

t Blackadder’s  Memoirs,  MS.  copy.  The  same  w^riter  says,  He  [Welsh]  was 
attended  from  place  to  place  with  companies  of  gentlemen  and  others,  with  great 
respect  and  applause.”  “ The  council,”  says  Kirkton,  “ set  a price  upon  Mr.  W elsh’s 
head,  and  for  that  he  never  rode  without  a guard  of  horsemen,  sometimes  more, 
sometimes  less,  but  seldom  exceeding  the  number  of  ten  horsemen.” — Kirkton’s  His- 
tory, p.  380. 

II  Struthers,  or  ns  it  is  called  in  some  old  papers,  Auchter  uther-Struther,  was  for- 
merly the  seat  of  the  earls  of  Crawford.  It  is  now  in  ruins,  and  stands  about  two 
miles  southwest  from  the  village  of  Ceres,  Fifeshire.  Its  towers  and  battlements 
gave  it  a venerable  and  a sort  of  warlike  appearance;  but  of  this  once  splendid 
house  there  now  exist  very  scanty  remains.  “ The  park  around  the  house,”  says  the 
old  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland,  “ which  is  enclosed  w4th  a stone  wall,  contains 
about  two  hundred  acres  of  ground  ; there  are  a good  many  trees  in  different  places 
of  the  park,  particularly  some  venerable  beeches  of  a very  large  size.”  But  in  the 
new  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland,  it  is  said  that  these  ‘‘  venerable  beeches,  have 
died  or  been  cut  down.” 


COUNTESS  OF  CRAWFORD. 


215 


resolution  of  the  martyr.  Previous  to  her  hearing  Welsh  she 
attended  the  curates  without  scruple,  but  after  that,  no  arguments 
and  no  menaces  employed  by  her  relatives  could  prevail  upon 
her  to  go  and  hear  them ; and  she  embraced  every  opportunity 
within  her  reach  of  attending  field-conventicles.  In  her  the  per- 
secuted, the  poor,  and  the  suffering,  found  a sympathizing  friend.^' 
The  vast  change  she  had  undergone,  her  relatives  and  acquaint- 
ances did  not  fail  to  'observe  ; and  her  Christian  friends  were 
struck  with  the  rapidity  with  which  she  advanced  in  all  the 
graces  of  the  Spirit,  outstripping  many  who  had  preceded  her  in 
their  entrance  on  the  Christian  course.  Her  husband,  who  loved 
her  with  the  tenderest  affection,  was  improved  in  character  by 
the  imitation  of  her  virtues,  and  encomiums  upon  her  worth  were 
extorted  even  from  enemies. 

Of  this  lady,  Mr.  John  Blackadder  has  preserved  an  interest- 
ing memorial  in  his  “ Memoirs,  wTitten  by  Himself.”  After  nar- 
rating Welsh’s  visit  to  Fife,  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1674, 
and  referring  to  the  ‘‘  many  memorable  effects  of  the  power  and 
wisdom  of  God,  manifested  at  that  time,”  by  the  labors  of  that 
eminent  minister,  of  which  he  gives  some  examples,  he  says  : 
“ Among  others,  I must  notice,  to  the  commendation  of  the  grace 
of  God,  that  instance  concerning  Countess  Crawford,  then  called 
Lady  Lindsay,!  daughter  to  the  earl  of  Annandale,  by  Duke  Ham- 
ilton’s sister  (whose  education  was  more  likely  to  have  alienated 
her  from  that  way,  than  to  ingratiate  it  to  her),  she  coming  to  one 
of  these  great  meetings  at  Duraquhair,  near  Cupar,  and  near  to 
her  own  house  : she  by  a special  cast  of  God’s  power,  had  been 
induced  among  others  to  come  forth  one  of  these  great  sabbaths 
at  Duraquhair,  where  it  was  estimated  there  were  about  seven  or 
eight  thousand  persons  present,  and  much  of  the  power  of  God 
appeared  to  the  shaking  the  consciences,  and  awakening  the 
hearts  of  the  generality  for  the  time,  and  leaving  a lasting  im- 
pression on  others,  among  whom  this  truly  honorable  lady  was 
one,  who  declared  she  wa’s  constrained  to  close  with  the  offer 
that  was  made  in  that  great  day  of  the  gospel ; which  was  made 
known  to  many  by  manifest  fruits  of  piety,  showed  forth  in  all  her 
walk  as  a Christian  and  dutiful  yoke-fellow  to  her  lord,  who  also 

* Mr.  John  Carstairs  in  a letter  to  the  earl  of  Crawford,  dated  May  2,  1678,  says, 
“ I take  it  for  granted  your  lordship’s  excellent  lady  and  sister  covet  most  the  relief 
of  Christ’s  oppressed  interests,  and  that  your  endeavors  therein  will  be  most  accept- 
able and  satisfying,  as  I hope  your  brother’s  sweet  lady  also  doeth.” — Wodrow 
MSS.,  vol.  lix.,  folio.  No.  78. 

t Her  husband  was  then  only  Lord  Lindsay.  He  did  not  become  Earl  Crawford 
till  his  father’s  death,  which  took  place  in  1676. 


216 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


received  good  impressions  of  that  day’s  work,  and  the  like  from 
her  very  report  of  the  Lord’s  gracious  presence  and  good  she 
found  to  her  soul  that  day ; which  the  writer  hereof  also  had 
from  herself,  with  great  majesty  and  seriousness  in  the  presence 
of  her  lord,  who  hath  since  also  been  helped  to  carry  as  a Chris- 
tian in  the  exercise  of  piety  and  righteousness  (whereof  he  hath 
given  a good  proof  in  dispensing  his  estate,  to  pay  his  father’s 
creditors,*  having  very  little  to  himself),  and  steadfast  soundness 
in  the  public  cause  of  reformation,  with  as  much  tenderness,  and 
keeping  at  a distance  from  all  steps  of  defection,  as  many  of 
whom  more  might  have  been  expected,  and  that  to  this  day.  Af- 
ter the  day  of  this  lady’s  conversion  to  the  Lord,  and  singular 
reformation,  she  could  never  be  induced  by  all  the  insinuations 
and  threats  of  her  near  and  noble  relations,  to  go  back  again  to 
the  prelatic  preachers  and  their  assemblies,  or  to  countenance 
any  of  the  prelates  or  curates  as  she  had  done,  but  frequented  all 
occasions  of  preaching  at  these  persecuted  meetings  she  could 
conveniently  win  at.  She  lived  and  died  endeavoring  to  adorn 
her  profession  by  a conversation  becoming  the  gospel ; even 
to  the  stopping  the  mouths  of  gainsayers.  What  is  here  declared 
as  to  this  memorable  instance  and  effect  of  the  grace  and  power 
of  Christ  manifested  to  this  lady,  I am  without  fear  of  any  man’s 
disproving,  beside  many  the  like  to  others  at  these  persecuted 
meetings,  called  by  many  in  this  degenerate  generation  unlawful 
conventicles.”! 

Lady  Crawford  died  in  the  year  1682,  in  the  prime  of  life. 
This  we  learn  from  the  epistle  dedicatory,  prefixed  by  Mr.  John 

* He  made  his  nonentailed  property  responsible  for  payment  of  his  father’s  debts 
“ that,”  to  use  his  own  words,  “ the  memory  of  so  good  a man,  and  so  kind  a father, 
might  not  suffer  by  the  neglect  of  a son  that  owed  all  things  to  him  in  gratitude  as 
well  as  duty.” — Melville  and  Leven  Papers,  p.  259.  Mr.  John  Carstairs,  in  his 
Epistle  Dedicatory  to  Durham’s  Sermons  on  Isaiah  liii.,  addressed  to  the  earl  of 
Crawford,  also  speaks  in  commendation  of  his  lordship’s  Christian  and  exemplary 
conduct,  in  “ Choosing  rather  contentedly  and  satisfiedly  to  be  (if  it  so  please  the 
Lord,  and  O that  it  may  not !)  the  last  of  that  ancient  and  honorable  family,  than  to 
be  found  endeavoring  to  keep  it  from  sinking  by  any  sinful  and  unwarrantable  course, 
particularly  by  defrauding  just  creditors  (though  the  debt  was  not  of  your  lordship’s 
own  contracting),  under  whatever  specious  pretexts  and  advantages  of  law ; where- 
of many  make  no  bones,  who,  if  they  may  keep  up  their  superfluities,  care  not  to 
ruin  their  friends  engaging  in  suretyship  for  their  debt,  and  to  live  on  the  substance 
of  others.”  Carstairs  adds,  “With  great  satisfaction  1 notice  how  much  your  lord- 
ship makes  it  your  business  to  follow  your  noble  ancestors,  in  so  far  as  they  were 
‘ followers  of  Christ,’  which  many  great  men,  even  in  the  Christian  world,  alas ! 
do  not  much  mind,  not  considering  that  it  is  true  nobility,  where  God  is  the  chief 
and  top  of  the  kin,  and  where  religion  is  at  the  bottom ; and  what  renowned  Ral- 
eigh saith,  ‘ Hinc  dictus  nobilis  quasi  prce  aliis  viytute  notabilis ; and  what  another 
saith,  ‘ Qui  ah  illustrium  majorum  splendida  virtuta  degenerarunt  nohilia  por- 
tenta  sunt'  ” 

t Blackadder’e  Memoirs,  MS.  copy ; see  also  Dr.  Crichton’s  printed  copy,  p.  167 


COUNTESS  OF  CRAWFORD. 


217 


Carstairs  to  Durham’s  sermons  on  Isaiah  liii.*  It  is  addressed 
“ Unto  all  afflicted  and  cross-bearing  serious  Christians  ; and 
more  particularly,  to  the  Right  Honorable  and  Truly  Noble  Lord 
William,  Earl  of  Crawford;”  and  is  dated  November  15,  1682. 
After  adducing  and  illustrating  a variety  of  reasons,  why  the 
people  of  God  should  “ sweetly  submit  themselves  to  his  will  in 
all  things,  how  cross  soever  to  their  own  inclination,”  he  says  : 

Let  them  all,  my  noble  lord,  prevail  with  your  lordship  in  par- 
ticular, reverently  to  adore,  silently  to  stoop  unto,  and  sweetly 
to  acquiesce  in,  the  Lord’s  sovereign,  holy,  and  wise  ordering 
your  many  and  various  complicated  trials  ; and  more  especially 
his  late  removing  your  excellent  lady,  the  desire  of  your  eyes, 
the  Christian  and  comfortable  companion  of  your  youth,  by  his 
stroke.”  In  the  same  dedication,  Carstairs  bears  testimony  to 
the  distinguished  piety  of  this  lady,  in  these  words  : “I  am,  my 
noble  lord,  the  more  easily  prevailed  with,  and  encouraged  to 
address  the  dedication  of  these  sermons  to  your  lordship,  more 
particularly  when  I remember  ‘ the  unfeigned  faith  that  first 
dwelt  in  your  grandmother,’  as  another  Lois  ; and  in  your  mother, 
as  another  Eunice  ;t  and  more  lately  in  your  own  choice  lady, 
who,  as  another  beloved  Persis,  ‘ labored  much  in  the  Lord  fi. 
(and  though  she  had  but  a very  short  Christian  race,  in  which 
she  was  much  encouraged  by  coming  into  your  noble  father’s 
family,  and  her  beholding  how  hard  your  blessed  mother  did  run 
and  press  toward  the  mark,  even  when  in  the  last  stage,  and 
turning  in  a manner  the  last  stoop  of  her  Christian  course  ; yet 
it  was  a very  swift  one,  wherein  she  did  quite  outrun  many  that 
were  in  Christ  long  before  her) ; all  three  ladies  of  honor,  almost 
— if  I need  to  say  almost — without  parallels  in  their  times,  in  the 
serious  and  diligent  exercise  of  godliness,  and  patterns  worthy 
to  be  imitated  by  others.”  Carstairs  adds,  “And  [the  same  un- 
feigned faith  dwells]  I trust  in  your  lordship  also,  yea,  and  in 
several  others  of  your  elder  and  younger  noble  relations  ; for 
grace  hath  such  a draught  of  souls  amongst  you,  as  it  useth  not 
often  to  have  in  societies  of  so  noble  extract,  ‘ for  not  many  noble 
are  called.’” 

The  loss  of  this  amiable  and  pious  lady  gave  a severe  shock 
to  the  feelings  of  the  earl.  Carstairs,  who  knew  the  intensity 
of  his  grief,  addressed  himself  to  the  task  of  administering  com- 
fort to  his  wounded  heart.  “ Let  all  mutinous  thoughts  about 

* She  had  issue  to  the  earl,  three  sons,  the  eldest  of  whom  was  John,  seventeenth 
earl  of  Crawford,  and  a daughter. — Douglas's  Peerage,  vol.  i.,  p.  387. 

t 2 Timothy,  i.  5.  t Romans,  xvi.  12. 

19 


218 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


His  dealings  with  you  be  silenced  with,  ‘ It’s  the  Lord  let  not 
too  much  dwelling  on  the  thoughts  of  your  affliction,  to  the  filling 
of  your  heart  still  with  sorrow,  incapacitate  you  for,  nor  divert 
you  from,  humbly  asking  the  Lord,  what  he  aims  at  by  all  these 
dispensations,  what  he  would  have  you  to  learn  out  of  them, 
what  he  reproveth  and  contends  for,  what  he  would  have  you 
amending  your  hands  in,  and  what  he  would  have  you  more 
weaned,  self-denied,  and  mortified  in,  and  what  he  would  have 
you  a further  length  and  a greater  proficient  in : He  hath  told 
you  ‘ the  truth,  that  these  things  are  expedient  for  you study  to 
find  them  to  be  so  in  your  experience.  Sure  he  hath  by  them 
written  in  great,  legible,  and  capital  characters,  yea  even  as  with 
a sunbeam,  vanity,  emptiness,  uncertainty,  mutability,  unsatis- 
factoriness, and  disappointment  upon  the  forehead  of  all  creature 
comforts,  and  with  a loud  voice  called  your  lordship,  yet  more 
seriously  than  ever,  to  seek  after  solid  soul  satisfaction  in  his 
own  blessed  and  all-sufficient  self.”  And  after  observing  that 
“ it  is  the  scattering  of  our  expectations  and  desires  of  happiness 
among  other  objects  beside  him,  that  breeds  us  all  our  disquiet, 
anxiety,  and  vexation he  adds,  “ There  are  some  whom  he 
loveth  so  well,  that  he  can  not  (to  speak  so)  find  in  his  heart  to 
see  them  thus  to  parcel  out  their  affections,  and  to  dote  upon  any 
painted  imaginary  happiness  in  creature-comforts  ; and  therefore, 
in  design,  he  doth  either  very  much  blast  them  as  to  the  expected 
satisfaction  from  them  ; or  quite  remove  them,  that  by  making 
such  a vacuity,  he  may  make  way  for  himself  to  fill  it,  and  hap- 
pily to  necessitate  the  person,  humbly,  prayerfully,  and  believ- 
ingly,  to  put  him  to  the  filling  of  it.  And  it  is  a great  vacuity 
that  he,  ‘ who  fills  heaven  and  earth,’  can  not  fill ; a little  of  whose 
gracious  presence,  and  manifested  special  love,  can  go  very  far 
to  fill  up  the  room  that  is  made  void,  by  the  removal  of  the  choi- 
cest and  most  desirable  of  all  earthly  comforts  and  enjoyments. 
Happy  they,  who,  when  they  lose  a near  and  dear  relation  or 
friend,  or  any  idol  they  are  fond  of,  are  helped  of  God  to  make 
Jesus  Christ,  as  it  were,  succeed  to  the  same  as  its  heir,  by  taking 
that  loss  as  a summons  to  transfer  and  settle  their  whole  love  or 
him,  the  object  incomparably  most  worthy  of  it,  as  being  ‘ alto- 
gether lovely,’  or  ‘ all  desires !’  Cant.  v.  16.” 

The  earl  afterward  married  for  his  second  wife  Lady  Henrietta 
Seton,  only  daughter  of  Charles,  second  earl  of  Dunfermline,  by 
his  wife  Lady  Mary  Douglas,  third  daughter  of  William,  earl  of 
Morton.*  She  was  the  relict  of  William,  fifth  earl  of  Wigton,  to 
* Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  i.,  p.  482. 


COUNTESS  OP  CRAWFORD. 


219 


whom  she  was  married  at  Dalgety  in  September,  1670,  whom 
she  lost  by  death  on  the  8th  of  April,  1681,  and  to  whom  she 
had  issue  two  sons  and  a daughter.*  To  the  earl  of  Crawford 
she  had  a son  and  six  daughters. 

Like  his  former  countess,  this  lady  was  a woman  of  genuine 
piety,  as  well  as  of  presbyterian  principles  ; and,  like  other  ladies 
of  nobility  and  honor,  she  had  her  own  share  in  the  sufferings  of 
those  evil  times.  She  first  suffered  in  her  two  sons  by  her  first 
husband  being  taken  from  her  and  committed  to  a teacher  to  be 
educated  in  prelacy  or  popery ; and  when  she  went  to  Edinburgh 
to  complain  to  the  government,  and  make  application  for  having 
them  restored  to  her,  her  complaint  and  request  were  disregarded. 
In  a paper  entitled  “Grievances  for  Scotland,  1661 — 1688,”  the 
following  is  included  as  a grievance  : “ The  threatening  to  take 
children  from  parents  to  breed  them  papists,  and  actually  taking 
my  Lord  Wigton  and  his  brother.  My  Lady  Crawford,  their 
mother,  came  over  to  Edinburgh,  in  great  grief  and  perplexity, 
a few  weeks  before  her  delivery,  but  was  harshly  handled  by 
the  chancellor,!  and  on  her  soliciting  the  lords  of  council  for  re- 
covery of  her  children  out  of  his  hands,  no  man  would  open  his 
mouth  for  her.”!  treatment  of  her  children  was  in 

glaring  violation  of  the  law.  There  was  indeed  at  that  period 
a standing  law  against  presbyterians  being  employed  as  chaplains 
or  pedagogues  in  families,  or  as  teachers  in  schools,  or  as  pro- 
fessors in  colleges,  conformity  to  prelacy  being  an  essential 
qualification  for  all  such  situations  ; but  to  abstract  children  from 
their  parents,  and  to  commit  them  to  teachers  for  the  purpose 
of  their  being  trained  up  in  prelacy  or  popery,  was  warranted  by 
no  statute  even  at  that  time,  when  the  throne  was  a throne  of 
iniquity,  and  when  mischief  had  been  so  extensively  framed  by 
law.  After  the  accession  of  James  VII.  to  the  throne,  so  gloomy 
were  the  anticipations  of  this  lady  as  to  the  future  state  of  matters 
in  Scotland,  that  she  was  very  desirous  of  going  abroad.  In  a 
letter  to  a friend,  dated  September  8,  1685,  speaking  of  the  con- 
siderations which  induced  him  to  leave  Scotland,  as  well  as  of 
the  difficulties  in  the  way,  the  earl  says  : “ The  things  that 
prompt  me  to  go  are,  first,  a passionate  desire  in  a most  dutiful, 
most  affectionate,  and  singularly  good  wife,  who  is  really  dis- 
quieted with  apprehensions  of  sad  things  that  are  coming  on 

Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  ii.,  p.  637.  t The  earl  of  Perth, 
f Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xl,  folio,  No.  3.  In  another  paper  entitled  “ Grievances 
for  Scotland,”  this  grievance  is  thus  stated  : “ The  imposing  of  naughty  persons  to 
govern  children,  as  one  imposed  on  my  Lord  Wigton  and  his  brother,  who  after  be- 
trayed them  to  the  chancellor.” — Ibid.,  vol.  xl , folio,  No.  7. 


220 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


Scotland  ; now,  when  I consider  the  composedness  of  her  temper 
for  ordinary,  I have  sometimes  looked  on  this  restlessness  in  her 
spirit  to  be  gone,  as  a warning  from  God  that  I should  retire.”* 


BARBARA  CUNNINGHAM, 

LADY  CALDWELL. 

Barbara  Cunningham  was  descended  from  the  Cunninghams 
of  Cunninghamhead  in  Ayrshire,  one  of  the  most  ancient  and 
powerful  cadets  of  the  Glencairn  family^  which  possessed  at  one 
time  large  properties  in  Lanarkshire,  and  even  in  Mid-Lothian, 
as  well  as  in  Cunningham,  but  which  began  to  decline  about  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century. f Her  ancestors  early  distin- 
guished themselves  as  warm  promoters  of  the  Reformation  from 
popery.  Her  great-grandfather,  William  Cunningham  of  Cun- 
ninghamhead, who  joined  the  lords  of  the  congregation,  and 
maintained  with  ardent  zeal  the  cause  for  which  they  erected 
their  standard,  sat  in  the  memorable  parliament  of  August,  1560, 
which  approved  and  ratified  the  confession  of  faith,  and  abolished 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  pope  throughout  the  kingdom  of  Scotland. 
His  name  appears  at  the  most  important  public  document  of  the 
Scottish  reformers,  as  at  “ Ane  Contract  of  the  Lords  and  Barons, 
to  defend  the  Liberty  of  the  Evangell  of  Christ,”  in  1560  ; at  the 
Book  of  Discipline,  which  he  subscribed  January  27,  1561,  as 
one  of  the  members  of  the  privy  council ; and  at  the  famous 
band  for  the  support  of  the  reformed  religion,  in  1562.  He  was 
a member  of  the  assembly  of  1565,  which  was  so  obnoxious  to 
Queen  Mary  and  the  Roman  catholics,  and  was  one  of  five  com- 
missioners sent  to  the  queen  by  that  assembly,  with  certain 
articles, — the  first  of  which  was  that  the  mass  and  all  papistical 
idolatry  and  jurisdiction  should  be  universally  abolished  through- 
out the  realm, — humbly  desiring  her  to  ratify  and  approve  the 
same  in  parliament. j:  Her  father.  Sir  William  Cunningham  of 

* Wodrow’s  Hist.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  513.  t Robertson’s  Ayrshire  Panailies,  vol,  i.  p.  303. 

t Robertson’s  Ayrshire  Families,  vol.  i.,  p.  305.  Knox’s  History,  Wodrow  Society 
edition,  vol.  i.,  p.  366 ; and  vol.  ii.,  pp.  61,  258,  349,  486.  Robertson  is  mistaken 
when  he  says  that  the  “ laird  of  Cunningham,”  who  was  a member  of  the  assembly 
of  1565,  was  Barbara  Cunningham's  great-grand-uncle,  John  Cunningham,  brother 
to  her  great-grandfather,  William  Cunningham.  It  was  her  great-grandfather  him' 
self,  who  was  a member  of  that  assembly.  He  died  in  January,  1576. 


LADY  CALDWELL. 


221 


Cunninghamhead,  succeeded  his  father,  John,  about  the  year 
1607,  and  was  created  a baronet  in  1627.  He  was  twice  mar- 
ried; first,  in  1619,  to  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Mr.  Thomas  Nic- 
olson,  commissary  of  Aberdeen,  by  whom  he  had  Sir  William, 
who  succeeded  him,*  and  Barbara,  the  subject  of  this  notice. 
He  had  several  other  children  of  this  marriage,  but  they  all  died 
either  unmarried  or  without  issue.  He  married,  secondly.  Lady 
Margaret  Campbell,  daughter  of  Lord  Loudon,  but  of  this  mar- 
riage there  was  no  issse.  He  died  about  the  year  1640.t 

Barbara  Cunningham  was  married,  in  1657,  to  William  Muir 
of  Caldwell  and  hence  by  the  courtesy  of  the  time  she  was 
usually  styled  Lady  Caldwell.  This  “ honorable  and  excellent 
gentleman,”  as  he  is  called  by  Wodrow,  zealously  adhered  to  the 
ministers  ejected  in  1662,  and  was  among  the  first  who  left  off 
attending  the  ministry  of  the  intruded  curates.  On  the  ejectment 
of  Mr.  Hugh  Walker,  the  minister  of  Neilston,  from  his  charge, 
by  the  act  of  the  privy  council  at  Glasgow,  in  1662,  Muir  of 
Caldwell,  who  resided  in  that  parish,  ceased  to  attend  the  parish 
church,  for  which  he  was  in  some  danger  of  being  involved  in 
trouble.  Mr.  John  Carstairs,  in  a letter  to  Lady  Ralston,  dated 
March  6,  1663,  says,  “ The  people  here  and  in  the  parts  about 
are  likely  to  be  sorely  put  to  it,  if  the  Lord  do  not  graciously 
prevent ; they  imprison  some  of  them  for  not  hearing  both  in  this 
town  and  elsewhere.  The  Lord  Cochrane  is  very  zealous  in  this 
good  cause.  Some  of  Neilston  parishioners  are  in  prison  at 
Paisley  on  that  account,  and  Caldwell  was  cited  by  the  lord- 
chancellor  to  appear  before  the  council  at  Edinburgh,  because  he 
would  not  promise  to  hear  afterward.  He  should  have  appeared 
yesterday,  but  he  got  the  first  day  put  by ; whether  he  will  get 
his  appearance  shifted  altogether,  I know  not.  I heard  (and  it 
seems  by  that  same  zealous  man’s  means)  that  some  din  was 
made  to  the  lord-chancellor  about  Caldwell,  Dunlop,  and  the 
laird’s II  keeping  meetings  together  at  Paisley.  Some  were 
afraid  the  chancellor  would  have  called  for  the  laird,  but  I have 
heard  nothing  since  ; it’s  like  it  will  evanish  and  settle  down 

^ His  son,  Sir  William,  who  succeeded  him,  like  his  daughter,  Barbara,  suffered 
not  a little  during  the  persecution,  as  we  learn  from  Wodrow’s  History.  Besides 
being  fined  by  Middlefon’s  parliament  in  1062,  above  .£200  sterling,  he  was  impris- 
oned for  several  years  in  Stirling  castle.  He  died  in  1670. 

t Robertson's  Ayt shire  Families,  vol.  i.,  pp.  306-.308. 

t Fountainhall’s  Decisions  of  the  Lords  of  Session,  &c.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  558.  William 
had  succeeded  his  brother  James,  who  died  without  issue,  in  1654.  Crawford's 
History  of  Renfrewshire,  Robertson’s  edition,  p.  307. 

II  The  laird  of  Ralston. 


19' 


222 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


again.”*  Lady  Caldwell,  being  of  similar  ecclesiastical  princi* 
pies  with  her  husband,  no  doubt  acted  in  a similar  manner. 

The  sufferings  of  this  lady  in  the  cause  of  religion  and  liberty, 
may  be  said  to  have  commenced  in  the  year  1666,  after  the  un- 
successful attempt  of  the  covenanters  at  Pentland  hills.  Her 
husband  and  a few  gentlemen  in  the  west,  having  gathered  to- 
gether a small  company  of  horsemen,  amounting  to  about  fifty, 
intended  to  join  the  covenanters  under  Colonel  Wallace,  who 
were  then  near  Edinburgh  ; but  being  informed,  after  proceeding 
a short  way  on  their  journey,  that  General  Dalziel  was  between 
them  and  their  friends,  they  dispersed.  Caldwell,  who  was  cap- 
tain of  that  little  band,  soon  after  found  it  necessary  to  provide 
for  his  safety  by  flight,  and  concealing  himself  for  some  time,  he 
succeeded  in  getting  safely  over  to  Holland,  where,  like  many 
others  of  his  expatriated  countrymen,  he  found  a secure  retreat, 
but  from  which  he  never  returned  to  his  native  land.  Mean- 
while he  was  prosecuted  by  his  majesty’s  advocate,  before  the 
lords  justiciary  for  high  treason,  simply  because  he  had  been  on 
the  road  to  join  those  in  arms  ; and  on  the  16th  of  August,  1667, 
being  found  guilty  of  treason  by  a jury  in  his  absence,  he  was 
sentenced  to  undergo  capital  punishment,  and  to  be  demeaned  as 
a traitor,  when  he  should  be  apprehended,  and  all  his  lands,  ten- 
ements, annual  rents,  offices,  titles,  tacks,  dignities,  steadings, 
rooms,  possessions,  goods,  and  gear  whatsoever,  were  declared 
to  be  forfeited  to  his  majesty’s  use.f  On  the  12th  of  October, 
the  privy  council  appointed  James  Dunlop,  of  Househill,  to  uplift 
Muir  of  Caldwell’s  rents  for  the  year  1667,  and  bygone  terms 
since  the  rebellion,  and  in  future  years,  and  to  take  an  exact  in- 
ventory of  his  whole  movable  goods  and  gear.  His  excellent 
estate,  it  is  said,  was  at  this  time  promised  to  General  Dalziel, 
as  a reward  to  the  general  for  his  success  in  suppressing  the 
Pentland  insurrection.  It  was  not,  however,  actually  gifted  to 
him  till  July  11,  1670,  when  Charles  granted  in  his  favor  a char- 
ter, under  the  great  seal  of  the  kingdom  of  Scotland,  in  due  form, 
disponing  to  him,  his  heirs  and  assignees  whatsoever,  in  perpe- 
tuity, the  lands  of  Muir  of  Caldwell ; and  every  means  was  taken 

Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xlv.,  8vo,  No.  52. 

t These  proceedings  were  unquestionably  illegal ; for  “ all  processes  of  forfeiture 
before  the  justice  coart,  in  absence,  were  contrary  to  the  act  90th,  parliament  11, 
James  VI.'' — Morison’s  Dictionary  of  the  Decisions  of  the  court  of  Session,  p.  4695. 
The  government,  well  aware  of  this,  had  recourse  to  an  expedient  to  secure  them- 
selves, and  give  validity  to  these  proceedings.  With  this  view,  an  act  of  parlia- 
ment was  passed,  post  facto,  in  1669,  ratifying  these  forfeitures,  and  declaring  them 
legal  where  it  is  for  rising  in  arms  and  perduellion. — Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii.,  p. 
140.  Fountainhall's  Decisions,  vol.  ii.,  p.  558. 


LADY  CALDWELL. 


225 


to  render  the  gift  secure.  On  the  22d  of  August,  1670,  an  act 
of  parliament  was  passed,  ratifying  the  royal  grant,  and  giving 
validity  to  all  steps  taken  to  secure  the  estate  to  him  and  his 
heirs  in  perpetuum ; and  on  the  8th  of  October,  that  same  year, 
he  was  infefted  in  the  estate.* 

These  proceedings  against  Muir  of  Caldwell,  it  is  obvious, 
could  not  but  deeply  strike  against  Lady  Caldwell.  By  the  sen- 
tence of  forfeiture  pronounced  upon  him,  she,  though  not  the 
object  avowedly  aimed  at,  suffered  in  fact  as  much  as  he  suffered 
himself.  It  affected  the  temporal  comfort  of  herself  and  h,er  chil- 
dren as  much  as  it  affected  his.  While  he  remained  lurking  in 
the  country,  she  had  to  endure  the  anxiety  arising  from  the  dan- 
ger to  which  he  was  exposed,  of  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
government ; and  during  that  time,  or  after  he  had  made  his  es- 
cape to  Holland,  she  suffered,  previous  to  joining  him,  many 
hardships  at  home.  The  work  of  spoliation  by  Dalziel  and  his 
associates  was  then  going  on  at  the  house  and  on  the  property 
of  Caldwell,  under  her  own  eye.  Of  the  extent  to  which  the 
work  was  carried,  some  idea  may  be  formed  from  a list  of  the 
losses  she  had  sustained  during  the  persecution,  contained  in  the 
libel  in  the  action  she  and  her  daughter  brought  against  the 
grandson  of  Dalziel,  before  the  court  of  session,  after  the  revolu- 
tion, claiming  reparation.  This  list  enumerates  the  loss  of 
“ thirty-six  milk  and  yield  cows,  at  20  lbs.  per  piece,  which  be- 
longed to  William  Mure  of  Caldwell,  and  were  in  his  own  pos- 
session in  the  year  1666  ; a great  gelding,  worth  50  lbs.  ster- 
ling ; four  other  horses  at  100  lbs.  per  piece  ; together  with  the 
whole  growth  of  the  mains  of  Caldwell,  the  said  crop  1666,  both 
corn  and  fodder,  to  the  value  of  2,000  merks  ; fifty  bolls  of  meal 
lying  in  the  girnels  at  the  said  time,  at  10  merks  per  boll ; the 
whole  plenishing,  utensils,  and  domicils,  to  the  value  of  3,000 
merks  ; three  terms  rent  preceding  Martinmas,  1667,  of  the  said 
estate  of  Caldwell,  extending  to  10,500  merks  intromitted  with, 
by  the  said  General  Thomas  Dalziel,  before  he  obtained  the  gift 
of  Caldwell’s  forfeiture  ; three  hay-stacks  standing  in  the  corn- 
yard  of  the  said  mains  of  Caldwell,  at  100  merks  per  piece  ; the 
whole  growth  of  little  mains,  which  was  in  the  Lady  Caldwell’s 
elder,!  her  own  hands,  with  the  corn  and  fodder,  and  a hay 
stack,  extending  to  the  value  of  550  lbs.  Scots. ”J  In  the  same 

Proceedings  of  parliament,  February  20,  1707,  in  Acts  of  the  Parliament  of 
Scotland,  vol.  xi.,  p,  103. 

t William  Muir  of  Caldwell’s  mother. 

t Proceedings  of  parliament,  February  20,  1707,  in  Acts  of  the  Parliament  of 
Scotland,  vol.  xi.,  Appendix. 


224 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


document,  it  is  stated  that  General  Dalziel  at  Martinmas,  1666, 
intromitted  with  and  took  away  from  Lady  Caldwell  the  furniture 
of  the  house  of  Caldwell. 

At  last  Lady  Caldwell  went  over  to  Holland  to  join  her  hus- 
band, who,  it  appears,  had  taken  up  his  residence  in  Rotterdam. 
Whatever  might  be  her  outward  temporal  circumstances  while  in 
Holland,  she  and  her  husband  were  protected  in  their  life  and 
property  ; they  were  allowed,  without  restriction,  to  worship  God 
according  to  the  dictates  of  their  conscience ; and  they  enjoyed 
a select  and  congenial  society  in  those  excellent  ministers  and 
laymen,  with  their  wives,  who,  from  similar  causes,  had  been 
under  the  necessity  of  taking  shelter  in  that  country,  from  the 
fury  of  persecution.  Both  of  them,  as  we  learn  from  the  corre- 
spondence of  that  period,  were,  during  their  exile,  very  highly 
esteemed  by  these  refugees.  Robert  MAVard  not  only  describes 
Muir  of  Caldwell  as  a man  of  great  intelligence  and  remarkable 
for  the  elegance  and  felicity  of  language  with  which  he  expressed 
himself  on  ecclesiastical  and  religious  subjects,  but  assigns  him 
the  first  place  in  his  day  among  the  pious  gentlemen  of  Scotland. 
“ As  a companion,”  says  he,  “ we  had  but  one  Caldwell  among 
all  the  gentlemen  I knew  or  yet  know  in  Scotland.”*  And 
speaking  of  Lady  Caldwell,  he  says,  “ Who  did  also  cheerfully 
choose  to  be  his  fellow  exile  and  companion  in  tribulation,  as  she 
desired  to  be  in  the  kingdom  and  patience  of  Jesus  Christ.”! 

But  she  had  not  resided  long  in  Holland  when  she  was  afflicted 
with  the  loss  of  her  husband,  who  died  at  Rotterdam,  on  Wednes- 
day the  9th  of  February,  1670,  his  death,  as  was  believed,  having 
been  hastened  by  the  grief  he  felt  on  account  of  the  calamitous 
state  of  the  church  in  his  native  country.  She  had,  however, 
under  this  trial  the  satisfaction  of  reflecting  that  she  had  been  able 
to  attend  him  under  his  last  illness,  and  of  witnessing  the  peace 
of  mind,  and  the  hopes  of  eternal  glory,  which  sustained  and 
cheered  him  on  the  bed  of  death.  His  dying  words  were  noted 
down  by  Mr.  Robert  M‘Ward,  who  observes  that,  as  “he  uttered 
them  at  several  times  during  his  few  days’  sickness,  and  as  they 
were  gathered  from  the  memories  of  some  gracious  persons  who 
were  present,  it  Avill  not  be  expected  that  they  can  be  set  down 
altogether  in  that  order,  liveliness  and  elegancy  of  phrase  (wherein 
he  had  a peculiar  happiness),  as  they  were  spoken  by  him.” 
Referring  to  the  cause  of  his  banishment,  Caldwell  said,  “ I am 
in  perfect  peace  and  quiet  of  mind.  There  is  no  inconsistency 
between  the  obeying  of  God  and  man.  Help,  O Lord ! we  can 

* Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  Iviii.,  folio,  No.  74.  t Ibid.,  vol.  Ixviii.,  folio,  No.  23. 


LABY  CALDWELL. 


225 


have  no  liberty  but  what  is  clogged  (as  we  apprehend)  with  great 
slavery.  If  we  can  not  get  living  in  the  world  like  men,  let  us  be 
helped  to  die  like  men,  in  the  avowing  of  the  truth  of  our  God.” 
He  also  said,  “ King  Charles,  we  are  content  to  give  thee  all 
thine  own  ; but  do  not,  may  not,  giye  thee  that  which  is  only  due 
unto  King  Jesus,  and  unto  none  else.”  On  another  occasion  he 
said,  ‘‘I  have  forsaken  all  for  thee,  O Father,  Son,  and  blessed 
Spirit ! to  whom  be  praise  for  ever  and  ever.”  But  that  it  might 
not  be  supposed  that  he  built  on  this  his  hopes  of  heaven,  he 
added,  Jesus  hath  paid  the  price,  he  hath  satisfied  his  Father’s 
justice  to  the  full ; I have  laid  all  over  on  the  cautioner,  and  he 
hath  assured  me  that  he  hath  undertaken  all  for  me.  He  hath 
overcome,  he  hath  overcome  ; he  will  bruik  his  crown  in  spite 
of  man  and  devils.”  He  repeatedly  bore  testimony  to  the  worth 
of  his  wife.  One  time,  on  his  desiring  her  to  be  called  for,  and 
it  being  told  him  that  being  very  sick,  she  had  lain  down  to  rest, 
he  said,  “Tell  her  that  she  and  I shall  be  in  heaven  for  ever  and 
ever,  and  there  we  shall  eat  angels’  food.”  “ At  another  time, 
being  strongly  assaulted  by  the  tempter,  the  Lord  having  given 
him  great  victory  over  him  (as  his  gracious  manner  of  dealing 
with  him  usually  was),  he  cried  out,  ‘ I adjure  thee,  Satan,  unto 
the  bottomless  pit,  to  go  into  everlasting  chains,  and  to  outer 
darkness,  where  there  is  weeping,  wailing,  and  gnashing  of  teeth.’ 
Then  being  a little  silent,  immediately  he  cried  out,  ‘ Trouble  not 
Barbara  Cunningham,  for  she  is  one  of  God’s  elect:’  and  again, 
and  again,  after  a little  silence,  he  cried,  ‘ I say,  tempt  her  not, 
for  she  is  assuredly  an  elect  vessel.’  He  said  further,  ‘ My  faithful 
spouse,  my  faithful  spouse,  most  faithful  hast  thou  been  unto  me’ 
(which  was  his  ordinary  expression  to  her,  and  of  her),  and  did 
bless  the  Lord  heartily  that  ever  he  saw  her,  and  was  joined  unto 
her.  He  had  often  that  expression  after  the  most  fierce  and  hor- 
rible assaults  of  Satan,  ‘ Victory ! victory ! victory  for  evermore !’  ” * 
M‘Ward  pronounces  upon  him  the  following  encomium  : “And 
really  the  death  of  this  precious  gentleman  is  so  much  the  more 
to  be  laid  to  heart  and  lamented,  that  as  he  was  such  a hopeful 
and  promising  instrument  for  promoting  the  interest  of  Christ’s 
kingdom  in  his  station  and  generation,  and  had  upon  mature  de- 
liberation and  choice,  very  singly  and  unbiasedly  for  Christ  and 
the  gospel’s  sake,  quit  and  forgone  a considerable  and  ancient 
inheritance,  with  his  native  country,  and  the  fellowship  of  all  his 
natural  relations,  except  of  his  lady  only — so  in  as  far  as  could 
be  judged  by  godly,  judicious  and  sober  men,  in  regard  to  a pro- 
^Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  Ixviii.,  folio  No.  23. 


226 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


curing  means,  the  present  sad  condition  of  the  church  of  Scot- 
land, and  of  the  work  of  God  therein,  was  the  occasion  of  his 
death  ; such  a warm-hearted  and  kindly  sympathizing  son  of  Zion 
he  was,  and  so  sad  a lift  did  he  take  of  that  which,  alas ! many 
of  his  mother’s  children  walk  too  easily  and  lightly  under;  though 
the  most  accurate  observer  could  never  all  the  while  of  his  so- 
journing as  an  exile  abroad,  nor  along  his  sickness,  hear  him  let 
so  much  as  one  word  fall  savoring  the  least  dissatisfaction  with, 
or  unpleasant  resentment  of,  his  lot  as  to  outward  things.”*  And 
in  a letter  to  Lady  Caldwell,  M‘Ward  says,  “ He  had  the  care  of 
the  church,  besides  all  the  things  that  were  without  and  within, 
so  much  upon  his  heart,  that  after  he  had  lost  houses  and  lands, 
and  country  and  friends,  for  the  interest  of  his  Master’s  glory,  as 
counting  all  these  too  little  to  have  lost,  and  too  low  a significa- 
tion of  that  love  to  his  Master,  and  that  zeal  of  his  house  which 
did  eat  him  up,  he  did,  by  choice,  sacrifice  his  very  life  upon 
that  interest,  and  became  one  of  our  greatest  and  most  glorious 
martyrs.”! 

On  the  death  of  her  husband.  Lady  Caldwell  returned  to  Scot- 
land. Upon  her  return  she  went,  it  would  appear,  to  take  up  her 
residence  at  Caldwell  house,  and  provided  herself  with  new 
furniture.  But  in  that  mansion  she  was  not  permitted  long  to 
reside.  The  forfeited  estate  of  Caldwell  having  been  gifted  to 
Dalziel  a few  months  after  her  husband’s  death,  she  was  com- 
pelled to  quit  Caldwell  house,  and  to  seek  a home,  as  she  best 
could  find  it,  for  herself  and  her  four  fatherless  children,  three  of 
whom  were  daughters.  And  not  content  with  her  simple  eject- 
ment, Dalziel  took  away  the  furniture  of  Caldwell  house  which 
she  had  procured,  amounting  to  the  value  of  500  merks.j;  She 

^ Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  Ixviii.,  folio,  No,  23.  t Ibid.,  vol.  Ivii.,  folio,  No.  74. 

I This  is  included  in  the  enumeration  of  her  losses  during  the  persecution,  con- 
tained in  the  libel  in  the  action  she  and  her  daughter  raised  against  the  grandson  of 
Dalziel,  before  the  court  of  sessions  after  the  revolution.  In  the  same  document,  the 
following  losses  are  added,  “ Item,  the  sum  of  12,000  merks  received  by  the  general, 
or  his  said  son,  or  their  factors,  from  the  respective  tenants  of  the  lands  tor  tacks,  in 
name  of  grassum,  or  entry  at  Whitsunday,  1671.  Item,  6,000  merks  received  by 
them  from  the  feuars  and  vassals  of  the  said  estate,  for  entering  them  and  other 
casualties  that  occurred  during  that  time.  Item,  10,000  merks  sustained  of  damage 
through  the  said  pursuer’s  [Sir  Thomas  Dalziel’s]  father  demolishing  the  tower  and 
manor  place  of  Caldwell  the  time  foresaid,  and  of  the  bygone  rents  of  the  lands,  and 
others  life-rented  by  the  said  Barbara  Cunningham,  and  others  particularly  libelled.” 
From  Decreet  Absolvitor,  Sir  Thomas  Dalziel  of  Binns  against  the  Laird  and  Lady 
Caldwell,  in  Proceedings  of  Parliament,  20th  February,  1707,  in  Acts  of  the  Scot- 
tish Parliament.  It  may  here  be  stated,  that  to  make  the  most  of  Caldwell’s  estate, 
which  he  had  unjustly  acquired,  Dalziel,  quarrelling  the  tacks  of  the  tenants  as  set 
beneath  their  true  value,  instituted  a process  against  the  tenants  before  the  lords  of 
session  for  removing  them  although  they  had  standing  tacks  of  their  several  rooms 
granted  them  long  before  tlie  forfeitui-e  for  years  to  run.  Bjit  the  case  was  decided 


LADY  CALDWELL. 


227 


was  besides  deprived  of  all  visible  means  of  supporting  herself 
and  her  children  ; for  though,  by  her  marriage  contract,  an  annual 
rent  jointure,  suitable  to  her  rank,  was  secured  to  her  from  the 
lands  of  Caldwell,  and  she  had  been  actually  infefted  in  the  estate 
prior  to  its  forfeiture,  yet,  as  we  shall  afterward  see,  she  was 
deprived  of  this  her  just  right. 

Greatly  changed  were  her  circumstances  now  from  what  they 
were  during  the  first  eight  or  nine  years  after  her  marriage, 
when  she  lived  at  Caldwell  house  in  affluence,  and  day  followed 
day  without  any  cause  for  worldly  care  or  anxiety.  But  she  was 
not  discouraged.  She  did  not  distrust  in  adversity  the  God  whom 
she  had  trusted  and  served  in  prosperity.  Confiding  in  his 
promises,  she  believed  that  he  would  provide  for  her  and  hers  ; 
and  possessing  too  much  self-respect  to  be  dependent  for  the 
means  of  subsistence  on  the  bounty  of  others,  she,  with  her  vir- 
tuous children,  set  themselves  diligently  to  the  task  of  supporting 
themselves  by  the  labor  of  their  own  hands.  Nor  was  she  ever 
burdensome  to  any  person,  not  even  to  her  nearest  relations  ; 
and  if  at  times  when  reduced  to  straits,  she  was  under  the  neces- 
sity of  applying  to  them  for  a temporary  loan  of  money,  she  after- 
ward thankfully  and  fully  repaid  it.  Kind  friends,  whose  sym- 
pathy was  excited  by  her  afflicted  lot,  and  who  were  afraid  she 
might  be  in  pecuniary  difficulties,  repeatedly  offered  her  money, 
but  her  noble  spirit  of  independence  shrunk  from  the  acceptance 
of  all  such  assistance.  In  reference  to  a sum  of  money  which 
some  friend  in  Holland  had  sent  through  Mr.  Robert  M‘Ward  of 
Rotterdam,  to  Mr.  John  Carstairs,  to  be  communicated  to  her, 
Carstairs,  in  a letter  to  M‘Ward,  dated  February  8,  1678,  says  : 
“ The  Lady  Caldwell  was  impersuasible  in  that  matter,  though  I 
showed  her,  at  her  desire,  from  whom  it  was,  she  having  never 
taken  from  any,  of  which  boasting  she  is  resolved  not  to  be  de- 
prived, so  long  as  she  is  able  to  live  otherwise,  which  hath  made 
me  after  this  and  some  former  essays,  resolve  not  to  trouble  her. 
She  desired  me  kindly  to  thank  you  in  her  name.  I returned 
the  money  again  to  Mr.  Watson. 

In  this  humble  condition.  Lady  Caldwell,  with  her  daughters, 
continued  for  many  years,  struggling  for  the  means  of  subsist- 
ence, but  contented  and  happy — happier  far,  indeed,  than  that 
barbarous  and  unprincipled  man  could  possibly  be,  who  now 

against  him.  On  January  28,  1674,  “ The  lords  of  session  decerned  that  where  the 
tenants  were  innocent,  and  did  not  concur  in  the  crime,  [of  treason,  for  which  Cald- 
well was  forfeited,]  and  had  but  tacks  of  an  ordinary  endurance,  they  should  stand 
valid  for  the  years  to  run  after  the  forfeiture." — Morison’s  Dictionary  of  Decisions, 
pp.  4685-4689.  t Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  lix.,  folio,  No.  77. 


228 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COA^ENANT. 


wrongfully  possessed,  and  had  full  and  unlimited  dominion  over 
the  manor-house,  the  yards  and  orchards,  the  woods  and  mead- 
ows, throughout  the  liberties  of  Caldwell.  To  a woman  of  her 
independent  temper  of  mind,  it  would  be  a high  satisfaction  to 
reflect  that,  though  poor,  she  and  her  children  were  a burden  to 
nobody.  But  she  was  encouraged  and  supported  by  nobler  sen- 
timents and  more  Divine  consolations.  The  losses  and  suffer- 
ings she  had  sustained  had  been  endured  in  the  cause  of  Christ, 
and  she  did  not  regret  having  been  called  to  undergo  them 
in  so  good  a cause.  She  accounted  them  her  crown,  her  glory. 
She  took  joyfully  the  spoiling  of  her  goods,  knowing  that  she 
had  in  heaven  a better  and  a more  enduring  substance.  And,  in 
the  meantime,  she  had  experienced  that  in  proportion  as  her  suf- 
ferings for  Christ  abounded,  her  consolations  in  Christ  did  much 
more  abound.  This,  in  her  estimation,  was  of  greater  value  than 
the  largest  earthly  revenue  ; and  the  longer  she  lived,  the  more 
strongly  was  her  heart  inclined,  whatever  difficulties  and  tribu- 
lations might  intervene  and  oppose,  to  “ hold  fast  the  confidence 
and  the  rejoicing  of  the  hope  firm  unto  the  end.”  Such  were  the 
sentiments  and  feelings  to  which  she  gave  expression  in  a letter 
to  Colonel  James  Wallace,  the  friend  of  her  husband.  This  let- 
ter has  not  been  preserved,  but  its  import  we  learn  from  Colonel 
Wallace’s  reply,  which,  though  without  date,  appears  to  have 
been  written  either  in  1677  or  1678  ; and  the  portion  of  it  illus- 
trative of  the  Christian  character  of  Lady  Caldwell  may  here  be 
quoted. 

“ Elect  Lady,  and  my  Worthy  and  Dear  Sister  : Yours 
is  come  to  my  hand  in  most  acceptable  time.  It  seems  that  all 
that  devils  or  men  these  many  years  have  done  (and  that  has  not 
been  little),  against  you  to  daunt  your  courage;  or  to  make  you, 
in  the  avowing  of  your  Master  and  his  persecuted  interests,  to 
lower  your  sails,  has  prevailed  so  little,  that  your  faith  and  cour- 
age are  upon  the  growing  hand,  an  evidence,  indeed,  as  to  your 
persecutors  of  perdition,  but  to  you  of  salvation,  and  that  of  God. 
It  seems  when  you  at  first,  by  choice,  took  Christ  by  the  hand 
to  be  your  Lord  and  portion,  that  you  wist  what  you  did ; and 
that  notwithstanding  of  all  the  hardnesses  you  have  met  with  in 
biding  by  him,  your  heart  seems  to  cleave  the  faster -t.o  him. 
This  says  you  have  been  admitted  into  much  of  his  company 
and  fellowship.  My  soul  blesses  God  on  your  behalf,  who  hath 
so  carried  to  you,  that  I think  you  may  take  these  words  among 
others  as  spoken  to  you,  ‘You  have  continued  with  me  in  my 


LADY  CALDWELL. 


229 


afflictions  : I appoint  unto  you  a kingdom.’  It  seems  suffering 
for  Christ,  losing  anything  for  him  is  to  you  your  glory,  is  to  you 
your  gain.  More  and  more  of  this  spirit  may  you  enjoy,  that 
you  may  be  among  the  few  (as  was  said  of  Caleb  and  Joshua) 
that  follow  him  fully,  among  the  overcomers,  those  noble  over- 
comers mentioned  Rev.  ii.  and  iii.,  among  those  to  whom  only 
(as  picked  out  and  chosen  for  that  end)  he  is  saying,  ‘ Ye  are 
my  witnesses.’  Lady  and  my  dear  sister,  I am  of  your  judg- 
ment ; and  I bless  his  name  that  ever  he  counted  me  worthy  to 
appear  in  that  roll.”  He  concluded  thus  : Let  us  mind  one 
another.  My  love  to  all  friends  whom  you  know  I love  in  the 
Lord.  God’s  grace  be  with  you,  and  his  blessing  upon  your 
little  ones,  whom  he  hath  been  a father  to  !”* 

As  has  been  said  before,  though  by  her  marriage  contract 
Lady  Caldwell  had  secured  to  her,  from  the  lands  of  Caldwell,  an 
annual  rent  jointure,  and  had  been  actually  infefted  in  the  es- 
tate, prior  to  its  forfeiture,!  she  was  deprived  of  this  right.  As 
might  be  expected,  Dalziel,  instead  of  respecting  her  rights,  left 
no  means  untried  to  set  them  aside.  In  the  beginning  of  the 
year  1680,  as  donator  to  the  forfeited  estate  of  Caldwell,  he  pur- 
sued her  for  mails  and  duties.  She  defended  herself  upon  the 
ground  of  her  lifetime  infeftment.  The  base  artifice  with  which 
her  defence  was  met  on  the  part  of  Dalziel,  is  worthy  of  notice. 
Among  other  things,  it  was  alleged  for  him,  first,  that  Lady 
Caldwell’s  husband  was  yet  alive,  so  that  her  liferent  existed  not ; 
and,  secondly,  that  she  herself  was  in  the  late  rebellion,  in  June, 
1679.  Both  allegations  were  equally  untrue.  Her  husband  was 
not  then  alive,  having  died  in  Holland,  in  1670;  and  the  slan- 
derous defamation  that  she  was  in  the  rebellion  at  Bothwell 
bridge  was,  doubtless,  brought  forward  to  injure  her  cause,  by 
creating  prejudices  against  her  in  the  minds  of  her  judges.  On 
her  bringing  an  action  against  Dalziel  before  the  lords  of  session, 

* M'Crie’s  Memoirs  of  Veitch  and  Brysson,  &c.,  pp.  371-373.  This  letter  is  taken 
from  the  Wodrow  MSS.  It  is  addressed  on  the  back,  “ For  the  Lady  Caldwell,  at 
Glasgow.*’ 

t Sir  William  Cunningham,  of  Cunninghamhead,  in  his  account  of  the  suff'erings 
of  Lady  Caldwell,  preserved  among  the  Wodrow  MSS.  (vol.  xxxiii.,  folio,  No.  57), 
incorrectly  says  that  she  had  neglected  to  take  infeftment;’*  and  Wodrow,  whose 
account  of  her  sufferings  is  taken  from  that  document,  falls  into  a similar  mistake.— 
(History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  440.)  Fountainhall  says,  “ Muir  of  Caldwell,  being  married  to 
Cunningham’s  daughter,  in  1657,  he  infefts  her  in  a life-rent  jointure,  partly  by 
way  of  locality,  and  partly  an  annuity.” — His  Decisions,  &c.,  p.  558.  But  though 
she  was  infefted  upon  her  contract  of  marriage,  her  right  was  not  confirmed  by  the 
earl  of  Eglinton,  of  whom  her  husband  held  immediately  his  lands. — Morison’s  Dic- 
tionary of  Decisions,  pp.  4690-4693. 


20 


230 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


for  her  jointure  from  the  forfeited  estate,  the  lords,  in  November, 
1682,  found  that  though  she  had  been  infefted  upon  her  contract 
of  marriage,  yet,  as  her  right  was  not  confirmed  by  the  earl  of 
Eglinton,  her  husband’s  immediate  superior,*  her  right  fell  under 
the  forfeiture,  and  that  by  the  forfeiture  of  a sub-vassal  (whether 
the  king’s  immediate  or  mediate  vassal),  not  only  his  own  right, 
but  all  rights  flowing  from  him,  were  carried.! 

For  a considerable  number  of  years  after  her  return  from  Hol- 
land, Lady  Caldwell  had  not  experienced  personal  annoyance  on 
account  of  her  nonconforming  principles,  but  was  allowed,  with- 
out disturbance,  to  pursue  the  peaceful  occupations  by  which  she 
4,nd  her  children  earned  for  themselves  the  means  of  subsistence. 
Indeed,  considering  what  she  had  already  suffered  in  being  de- 
prived of  all  her  worldly  substance,  the  government  might  have 
been  ashamed  to  subject  her  to  additional  hardships  and  more 
Accumulated  sorrow.  But  arbitrary  and  persecuting  governments 
are  as  little  affected  by  a sense  of  shame  as  by  a sense  of  jus- 
tice. In  the  year  1683,  about  twelve  years  after  her  return  from 
the  continent,  during  which  time  she  had  lived  in  industrious  and 
contented  poverty,  chiefly,  it  would  appear,  at  Glasgow,  the  storm 
of  persecution  suddenly  burst  upon  her  head.  Without  indict- 
ment or  trial  she  was  made  prisoner,  and  confined  in  one  of  the 
state-prisons  for  upward  of  three  years.  The  cause  of  her  im- 
prisonment, and  the  hardships  she  endured  during  its  continu- 
ance, we  shall  briefly  relate,  as  affording  a striking  instance  of 
the  extreme  disregard  of  justice,  and  the  utter  heartlessness  which 
characterized  the  men  who  administered  the  affairs  of  our  coun- 
try in  the  times  of  which  we  write. | 

The  circumstance  in  which  her  imprisonment  originated  was 
the  false  information  that  a recusant  minister  had  been  preaching 
in  her  house.  To  make  the  narrative  intelligible  to  the  reader, 
it  is  necessary  to  state  that  the  house  in  which  she  lived,  which 
was  in  Glasgow,  was  near  the  foot,  and  upon  the  east  side  of  the 

* Her  right  was  not  confirmed  by  him  previous  to  the  forfeiture,  though  it  was 
confirmed  by  him  during  the  time  of  the  debate. 

t Morison’s  Dictionary  of  Decisions,  pp.  4690-4693. 

t Our  narrative  is  taken  chiefly  from  Sir  William  Cunningham’s  MS.  account  of 
Lady  Caldwell’s  sufferings,  already  referred  to.  It  may  here  be  staled,  that  Sir 
William  was  not  Lady  Caldwell’s  mother,  as  Dr.  Burns,  in  his  edition  of  Wodrow’s 
History,  supposes  (vol  iii.,  p 441),  but  her  brother’s  son — her  brother,  as  we  have 
seen  before,  having  died  in  1670,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  his-  eldest  eon, 
the  writer  of  that  account.  The  son,  like  the  father,  was  a sufferer  in  those  evil 
times,  even  when  a schoolboy,  incapable  of  giving  much  offence,  or  creating  much 
alanu. — See  Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  il,  pp.  428,  429.  He  mairied  Anne,  daughter 
of  Sir  Archibald  Stuart,  of  Castlemilk,  but  had  no  issue,  and  died  in  1724. — ttobert- 
Bon’s  Ayrshire  Families,  vol.  i.,  p.  308. 


LADY  CALDWELL. 


231 


street  called  the  Saltmarket,  and  that  the  windows  consisted 
mostly  of  timber  boards,  there  being  only  a few  inches  of  glass 
above  the  boards.  One  would  suppose  that  it  would  have  been 
difficult,  or  rather  impossible,  for  any  person,  from  the  opposite 
side  of  the  street,  to  discover,’ through  the  small  pieces  of  glass 
at  the  top,  what  was  going  on  in  the  interior  of  the  house.  But 
in  those  days  it  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  base  individuals,* 
either  from  pure  malignity  or  in  the  mercenary  hope  of  reward, 
to  give  false  informations  to  the  government  and  their  underlings 
against  the  persecuted  presbyterians  ; and  in  the  present  case  a 
person  of  this  stamp,  who  lived  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street, 
affirmed  that  one  night,  on  looking  from  his  own  house  on  the 
west  side  of  the  street,  just  opposite  (to  her  house,  he  saw  a min- 
ister preaching  in  her  chamber.  He  immediately  repaired  to  the 
land-provost  of  Glasgow,  whose  name  was  Barns,  a man  of 
known  hostility  to  the  presbyterians,  and  informed  him  of  what 
he  pretended  he  had  seen.  The  provost,  incited  by  Mr.  Arthur 
Ross,  then  archbishop  of  Glasgow,  whom  he  had  informed  of  the 
case,  proceeded  so  far  as  to  give  orders  for  the  apprehension  of 
Lady  Caldwell  and  her  three  daughters  who  lived  with  her,  and 
they  were  all  imprisoned  in  the  tolbooth  of  Glasgow.  This  was 
done,  be  it  observed,  before  they  were  convicted  of  any  fault,  and 
solely  upon  the  information  of  a single  person,  whose  information 
might  justly  be  suspected  of  falsehood,  it  being  hardly  credible 
that  he  could  discover  by  candle-light  through  two  glasses — his 
own  window  and  the  few  inches  of  glass  which  were  at  the  top 
of  hers — at  the  distance  of  so  broad  a street,  a minister  preach- 
ing in  the  house,  had  a minister  at  the  time  been  so  engaged. 
In  vain  was  redress  to  be  looked  for  from  the  lo^ds  of  his  majes- 
ty’s privy  council,  for  they  were  the  very  fountain  of  oppression, 
the  chief  instruments  of  destroying  the  civil  and  religious  liber- 
ties of  their  country.  On  being  informed  of  the  case,  probably 
by  the  archbishop  of  Glasgow,  the  privy  council  not  only  ap- 
proved of  the  illegal  proceedings  of  the  provost  of  Glasgow,  but 
gave  orders,  May  22d,  1683,  that  Lady  Caldwell  and  her  eldest 
daughter.  Miss  Jean,  should  be  carried  prisoners  to  the  castle  of 
Blackness,!  by  a strong  guard.  The  orders  were  strictly  execu- 

• These  were  either  renegades  from  the  presbyterian  faith,  or  the  lowest  and  most 
degraded  of  the  people. 

t Blackness  caslle  is  an  ancient  royal  fortress,  in  the  parish  of  Carriden,  Linlith- 
gowshire. It  is  situated  at  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  parish,  on  the  south  side 
of  the  firth  of  Forth,  on  a rocky  promontory,  projecting  into  the  firth.  It  is  built  in 
the  form  of  a ship,  and  is  one  of  the  oldest  fortifications  of  Scotland,  being  a reg- 
ular fort  of  four  bastions,  which,  along  with  the  fortifications  on  the  small  island  w 


233 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


ted,  and  Lady  Caldwell  continued  a prisoner  there  for  a period 
of  more  than  three  years,  and  her  daughter  for  nearly  six  months. 

Had  the  charge  brought  against  Lady  Caldwell  been  substan- 
tiated —had  it  been  proved  that,  at  the  time  specified,  a noncon- 
forming minister  had  been  preaching  in  her  house — she  and  her 
daughter  would  no  doubt  have  been  liable  to  the  severe  penalties 
of  the  unrighteous  and  cruel  laws  then  in  force  against  conven- 
ticles. By  an  act  of  parliament,  passed  in  August,  1670,  outed 
ministers  not  licensed  by  the  council,  and  any  other  persons  not 
authorized  by  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  are  prohibited  from 
preaching,  expounding  scripture,  or  praying,  in  any  meeting  ex- 
cept in  their  own  houses,  and  to  those  of  their  own  family,  under 
severe  penalties  ; and  by  the  same  act  it  is  “ statute  and  com- 
manded that  none  be  present  at  any  meeting,  where  any  . not 
licensed,  authorized,  nor  tolerated,  as  said  is,  shall  preach,  ex- 
pound scripture,  or  pray,”  except  the  minister’s  own  family  ; and 
it  is  declared  that  “ every  person  who  shall  be  found  to  have 
been  present  at  any  such  meetings  shall  be,  toties  quoties,  fined 
according  to  their  qualities,  in  the  respective  suras  following,  and 
imprisoned  until  they  pay  their  fines,  and  further  during  the  coun- 
cil’s pleasure And  if  the  master  or  mistress  of  any  family, 

where  any  such  meetings  shall  be  kept,  be  present  within  the 

Inchgrarvie,  seems  completely  to  command  the  passage  of  the  Forth  to  Stirling.  It  is 
one  of  the  four  ancient  national  fortresses  that,  by  the  articles  of  union,  are  required 
to  be  kept  in  constant  repair;  the  other  three  being  the  castles  of  Edinburgh,  Stir- 
ling, and  Dumbarton.  The  period  of  its  erection  is  unknown.  During  the  struggle 
between  presbytery  and  prelacy,  in  the  reign  of  James  VL,  it  was  used  as  a place 
of  confinement  for  those  ministers  and  laymen  who  had  become  obnoxious  to  tlie 
government  for  their  assertion  of  the  principles  of  religious  liberty.  Here  Mr.  John 
Welsh,  minister  of  Ayr,  and  five  other  ministers,  were,  for  holding  a general  assem- 
bly at  Aberdeen,  in  July,  1605,  in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  the  monarch,  confined 
from  August  that  year  till  toward  the  close  of  the  following  year,  when  they  w'ere 
banished  the  king’s  dominions,  not  to  return  upon  the  pain  of  death.  The  dungeon 
in  which  Welsh  was  immured  is  still  pointed  out.  It  is  the  lower  cell  on  the  west 
part  of  the  building.  The  visiter  who  enters  it  is  enabled  to  form  some  idea  of  what 
our  forefathers  suffered  in  the  cause  of  civil  and  religious  freedom.  It  is  of  small  di- 
mensions. The  floor  is  the  bare  unequal  rock,  on  which  one  can  neither  stand  nor 
walk  w’ith  any  measure  of  comfort ; and  the  only  means  by  which  light  and  air  are 
admitted  is  a chink  in  the  wall.  Blackness  castle  was  at  length  allowed  to  fall  into 
disrepair,  but  as  the  persecution  of  Charles  II.  advanced,  to  find  room  for  the  whig 
prisoners,  it  was  again  fitted  up  as  a place  of  confinement.  “ 24tli  June,  1677.  The 
council  wrote  a letter  to  his  majesty,  desiring  he  would  be  pleased  to  grant  warrant 
to  his  thresurie  for  lifting  as  much  money  as  will  repair  the  castle  of  Blackness  for 
holding  prisoners,  the  Bass  being  already  full.  His  majesty  sent  down  a warrant 
conform.” — Fountainhall’s  Historical  Notices,  p.  169.  Blackness  castle  was  repaired 
in  the  year  1679,  “ designed,”  says  Row,  “to  be  a prison  as  formerly  under  the  old 
bishops.” — Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  567.  And  within  its  gloomy  w'alls  many  cove- 
nanters were  immured  for  years.  In  a dungeon  still  called  “ The  Whigs’  Vault,” 
a dozen  or  a score  of  them,  according  to  tradition,  would  sometimes  be  confined  to- 
gether as  so  many  cattle. 


LADY  CALDWELL. 


233 


Louse  for  the  time,  they  are  to  be  fined  in  the  double  of  what  is 
to  be  paid  by  them  for  being  present  at  a house  conventicle.”* 
And  in  an  act  of  parliament,  June,  1672,  in  reference  to  the  part  of 
the  preceding  act  which  prohibits  nonconforming  ministers,  not 
licensed  by  the  council,  or  not  having  authority  from  the  bishop 
of  the  diocese,  “ from  preaching,  expounding  scripture,  or  'praying 
in  any  meeting,  except  in  their  own  houses,  and  to  those  of  their 
own  family,”  it  is  said:  ‘'Since  there  maybe  some  questions 
and  doubts  concerning  the  meaning  and  extent  of  that  word  pray^ 
his  majesty  doth,  with  advice  aforesaid,  declare  that  it  is  not  to 
be  understood  as  if  thereby  prayer  in  families  were  discharged 
by  the  persons  of  the  family,  and  such  as  shall  be  present,  not 
exceeding  the  number  of  four  persons,  besides  those  of  the  fam- 
ily ; [but]  it  is  always  declared  that  this  act  doth  not  give  allow- 
ance to  any  outed  minister  to  pray  in  any  families  except  in  the 
parishes  where  they  be  allowed  to  preach.”!  Even  the  indulged 
ministers  could  not,  according  to  the  acts  of  the  indulgence,  Sep- 
tember, 1672,  have  preached  in  the  private  house  of  a friend 
without  involving  themselves  and  their  hearers  in  the  violation 
of  these  laws  ; and  they  were  laws  still  in  force,  in  so  far  as 
Glasgow  was  concerned : for  although  a proclamation,  suspend- 
ing the  laws  against  house  conventicles  on  the  south  side  of  the 
river  Tay,  was  issued,  dated  June  29,  1679,  “the  town  of  Edin- 
burgh and  two  miles  around  it,  with  the  lordships  of  Musselburgh 
and  Dalkeith,  the  cities  of  St.  Andrews,  and  Glasgow,  and  Stir- 
ling, and  a mile  about  each  of  them,”  are  excepted.]:  Had  Lady 
Caldwell  and  her  daughter  then  been  convicted  of  the  charge 
brought  against  them,  they  would,  according  to  the  iniquitous 
laws  then  in  force,  have  been  liable  to  be  fined,  and,  failing  to 
pay  their  fines,  to  be  imprisoned. H 

* Wodrow's  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  169.  t Ibid , p.  200. 

t Ibid.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  149.  But  even  as  to  house  conventicles,  as  Fountainhall  in- 
forms us,  the  council  afterward  found  that,  notwithstanding  this  proclamation  of  in- 
dulgence, they  might  be  punished  and  fined  unless  licensed  by  the  council — that  the 
king’s  indulgence  had  not  permitted  them  but  only  where,  upon  application  to  the 
council,  they  are  established. — Historical  Notices  of  Scottish  Affairs,  p.  244. 

II  Sir  William  Cunningham,  in  his  account  of  Lady  Caldwell’s  sufferings,  speak- 
ing of  her  daughter.  Miss  Jean,  indeed  says:  “Yea,  though  the  matter  of  fact  as 
alleged  had  been  true,  what  law  even  then  could  make  the  poor  gentlewoman  of 
twenty  years  of  age  liable  to  such  cruel  treatment,  she  being  in  her  mother’s  house, 
where,  though  there  had  been  sermon,  yet  bylaw  it  ought  to  have  been  proven 
that  there  w^ere  five  more  than  the  family  present  to  hear  it,  w^hereas  it  was  never 
pretended  that  there  were  any  more  present  than  the  lady  and  her  family.”  Wod- 
row  makes  the  same  statement : but  both  are  mistaken.  It  would  have  been  ille- 
gal, as  is  evident  from  the  acts  of  parliament  quoted  in  the  text,  for  a nonconforming 
minister  to  have  preached  in  Lady  Caldwell’s  house,  though  none  but  tlie  members 
of  her  family  had  been  present. 


234 


THE  LADIES  OP  THE  COVENANT. 


Bat  tliey  were  not  convicted  of  the  breach  of  any  law.  Their 
imprisonment  was  therefore  illegal.  Presbyterian  ministers  were 
indeed  in  the  habit  of  paying  visits  to  Lady  Caldwell,  and  they 
frequently  preached  in  her  house — but  this  was  never  proved ; 
and  in  reference  to  the  particular  charge,  on  the  ground  of  which 
she  was  imprisoned,  she  always  denied  that,  at  the  time  speci- 
fied by  her  accuser,  any  person  was  preaching  in  her  house,  and 
the  contrary  was  never  established  against  her.  No  attempt  was 
indeed  made  to  prove  the  charge  ; the  very  forms  of  law  were 
disregarded ; no  judicial  procedure  was  gone  through ; a sum- 
mary and  arbitrary  course,  which  bore  injustice  on  its  very 
front,  was  adopted — a course  naturally  tending  to  destroy  all  se- 
curity of  personal  liberty,  and  to  beget  a universal  distrust ; for 
any  one  might  have  been  arrested  upon  a similar  charge,  and, 
however  innocent,  have  been  consigned  to  a dungeon. 

The  treatment  of  Lady  Caldwell  and  her  eldest  daughter  was 
not  only  illegal  and  tyrannical,  it  was  also  barbarously  cruel.  It 
was  robbing  of  her  liberty,  a lady  who  had  nothing  else  under 
God  but  the  fruits  of  her  own  industry,  to  support  herself  and 
her  children,  and  against  whom  nothing  could  be  found  by  her 
persecutors,  save  only  that  “ after  the  way  which  they  called  her- 
esy, she  worshipped  the  God  of  her  fathers.”  ’ 

When  brought  to  the  castle  of  Blackness,  she  and  her  daugh- 
ter were  kept  close  prisoners,  except  that  the  governor,  who  was 
disposed  to  favor  them,  sometimes  (though  at  his  peril)  allowed 
them  to  visit  his  lady,  whose  room  was  immediately  below  the 
cell  in  which  they  were  confined.  The  society  of  the  two  cap- 
tives would  serve  in  some  degree  to  relieve  the  tedious  hours  of 
their  imprisonment ; but  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  six  months,* 
Miss  Jean,  who  was  only  about  twenty  years  of  age,  began  to 
suffer  in  her  health,  in  consequence  of  her  close  confinement, 
which  excited  painful  apprehensions  in  her  mother,  whose  sense 
of  her  own  sufferings  was  for  the  time  absorbed  in  the  deep  and 
distressing  concern  which  she  felt  for  her  afflicted  daughter. 
Lady  Caldwell  having  conveyed  to  some  of  her  relations  infor- 
mation respecting  the  indisposition  of  Miss  Jean,  and  begged 
them  to  interpose  their  kind  assistance  for  obtaining  her  release 
for  the  recovery  of  her  health,  application  was  made  to  the  privy 
council  by  several  of  her  relations,  for  the  liberation  of  the  two 

Sir  William  Cunningham  says,  “ a year  and  some  more  and  Wodrow  says, 
“ for  near  a year's  time."  But  from  the  date  of  the  order  of  the  council  for  her  lib- 
eration, compared  with  the  date  of  the  act  of  council  ordering  her  imprisonmei^,  it 
is  evident  that  the  period  of  her  imprisoment  was  somewhat  less  than  six  months. 


LADY  CALDWELL. 


235 


ladies,  or  at  least  for  the  liberation  of  the  indisposed  daughter. 
After  much  trouble  and  no  small  expense,  an  order  was  at  last 
obtained  for  the  latter  being  set  at  liberty.  In  answer  to  a peti- 
tion which  she  presented  to  the  privy  council  to  that  efiect, 
accompanied  with  the  testimonials  of  physicians  as  to  her  ill 
health,  the  following  act  of  council  was  passed  : — 

ll^A  September^  1683. 

“ The  lords  of  his  majesty’s  privy  council,  having  heard  and 
considered  a petition  presented  by  Jean  Mure,  prisoner  in  the 
castle  of  Blackness,  for  several  alleged  irregularities  and  disor- 
ders, and  in  regard  of  her  present  sickness  and  indisposition, 
testified  under  the  hands  of  physicians,  supplicating  for  liberty, 
do  hereby  give  order  and  warrant  to  the  earl  of  Linlithgow,  gov- 
ernor of  the  said  castle  of  Blackness,  and  his  deputies  there,  to 
set  the  said  Jean  Mure,  petitioner,  at  liberty,  in  regard  of  her 
present  indisposition  and  sickness,  and  that  she  hath  found  suffi- 
cient caution,  acted  in  the  books  of  privy  council,  that  she  shall 
re-enter  her  person  in  prison,  within  the  said  castle  of  Blackness, 
upon  the  first  day  of  November  next,  under  the  penalty  of  one 
thousand  merks  Scots  money  in  case  of  failure.”* 

She  was,  however,  afterward  relieved  from  the  necessity  of 
returning  to  the  prison  of  Blackness  at  the  time  specified  in  this 
act.  Having  presented  another  petition  to  the  council,  ‘‘  desiring 
that  the  former  liberty  allowed  her  forth  of  the  castle  of  Black- 
ness, where  she  was  prisoner  for  several  alleged  irregularities, 
might  be  prorogate  for  some  further  time,  to  the  effect  she  may 
go  about  her  own  and  her  mother’s  affairs,  and  may  have  access 
to  her,  being  prisoner  in  the  said  castle,  both  day  and  night,”  the 
council,  at  their  meeting  on  the  6th  of  December,  1683,  ‘‘  proro- 
gate and  continue  the  petitioner’s  foresaid  liberty  forth  of  the  said 
castle,  in  regard  she  hath  found  sufficient  caution,  acted  in  the 
books  of  privy  council,  that  she  shall  compear  personally  before 
the  council  upon  the  first  Thursday  of  February  next,  or  that  the 
said  day  she  shall  re-enter  her  person  in  prison,  within  the  said 
castle  of  Blackness,  and  that  under  the  penalty  of  one  thousand 
merks  Scots  money  in  case  of  failure,  in  either  of  the  premises.”! 

In  February  she  presented  a third  petition  to  the  council, 
“ showing  that,  being  incarcerated  with  her  mother  in  the  castle 
of  Blackness,  near  ten  months  ago,  for  being  present  at  a con- 
venticle, as  alleged,  in  her  said  mother’s  house,  and  upon  appli- 
cation being  made  to  the  council  liberated,  but  withal  ordained 
to  re-enter  this  instant  month  of  February,  her  imprisonment  had 
Decreets  of  Privy  Council.  t Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council 


236 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


been  attended  with  great  indisposition  of  health ; and  therefore 
humbly  craving  that  the  council  would  be  pleased  to  consider  her 
circumstances,  a very  young  gentlewoman,  having  no  means  of 
livelihood  but  by  a dependence  on  her  mother,  and  to  commis- 
erate her  case,  and  ordain  her  to  be  set  at  liberty,  at  least  upon 
caution  to  compear  when  called.”  “ The  lords  of  his  majesty’s 
privy  council  having,”  at  their  meeting  of  the  14th  of  February, 
1684,  “considered  the  foresaid  petition,  give  warrant  to  the 
clerks  of  council  to  deliver  to  the  supplicant’s  cautioner  the  bonds 
given  for  her,  in  regard  conform  thereto  he  has  exhibited  her.”* 
The  young  lady’s  trouble,  it  would  appear,  on  account  of  the 
alleged  conventicle  in  her  mother’s  house  was  now  brought  to  a 
close. 

But  her  mother’s  sufferings  on  the  same  account  were  of  much 
longer  duration.  Lady  Caldwell,  at  the  time  when  her  daughter 
was  liberated,  was  allowed,  “ as  a mighty  favor,”  “ to  ascend  by 
some  steps,  to  take  the  air  upon  the  head  of  the  castle-wall,  but 
at  that  time  not  to  go  without  the  foot  of  the  turnpike  where  she 
lodged,  though  indeed  afterward  she  obtained  the  liberty  within 
the  precincts  of  the  castle.”!  But  after  this  she  continued  a 
prisoner  there  for  about  two  years  and  nine  months.  The  suffer- 
ings 'she  endured  during  that  period  must  have  been  great.  We 
have  no  chronicler  who  has  left  a record  of  the  annoyances  and 
privations  which  the  covenanting  prisoners  endured  in  the  castle 
of  Blackness,  as  James  Fraser  of  Brea  has  left  a record  of  those 
endured  by  the  prisoners  of  the  Bass.  As  in  the  Bass,  they 
would  probably  suffer  from  the  caprice,  rudeness  and  profaneness 
of  the  garrison.  From  several  of  the  petitions  presented  by  the 
prisoners  which  we  have  seen,  it  appears  that  in  most  cases  the 
health  of  the  prisoners  gave  way,  and  that  diseases  of  a very 
serious  nature  were  often  contracted.  Hard  as  it  was  for  this 
lady  to  be  deprived  of  all  her  substance,  and  to  be  compelled 
scantily  to  support  herself  and  her  children  by  the  labor  of  her 
own  hands,  her  condition  was  now  much  more  painful  and  dis- 
tressing. Now  she  was  removed  from  her  children,  who  had 
proved  a blessing  and  a comfort  to  her,  and  shut  up  in  a prison, 
was  doomed  to  spend  her  time  under  harsh  restraint  and  in  soli 
tude,  her  children,  relatives,  and  friends  being  only  occasionally 
allowed  to  visit  her.  In  this  desolate  situation,  the  days  and  the 
months  would  pass  heavily  away,  and  she  could  not  but  often 
experience  a sinking  in  her  spirit.  It  was,  however,  well  that 

* Decreets  of  Privy  Council. 

t Sir  William  Cunningham’s  MS.  account  of  the  sufferings  of  Lady  Caldwell. 


LADY  CALDWELL. 


237 


by  the  discipline  of  adversity  the  principles  of  her  faith  had  been 
well  established,  and  that  she  was  prepared,  by  her  Christian 
fortitude,  and  her  holy  trust  in  God,  to  suffer  still  greater  hard- 
ships than  those  to  which  she  had  been  even  as  yet  inured. 

Among  the  hardships  which  she  endured  during  this  period  of 
her  imprisonment,  the  following  case  of  heartless  cruelty  reflects 
the  utmost  disgrace  upon  the  government  of  that  day.  Her 
cousin-german,  Mr.  Walter  Sandilands,*  of  Hilderston,  then  living 
at  the  west  port  of  Linlithgow,  the  heiress  of  which  property  he 
had  married,  having  fallen  sick  of  a violent  fever,  which  issued 
in  his  death,  she,  on  hearing  of  his  dangerous  illness,  sent  two 
of  her  daughters,  probably  on  their  paying  her  one  of  those  occa- 
sional visits  which  for  a time  cheered  up  her  heart,  to  give  him 
her  kind  compliments  and  inquire  how  he  was.  Within  a few 
hours  after  their  arrival  at  his  house,  her  second  daughter.  Miss 
Anne,  was  attacked  by  the  fever,  of  which  she  afterward  died 
at  Linlithgow.  Being  informed  of  the  severe  and  dangerous 
sickness  of  her  daughter.  Lady  Caldwell  naturally  felt  a strong 
desire  to  see  her ; and  being  distant  from  her  only  two  miles, 
she  hoped  that  so  small  a favor  would,  upon  application,  not  be 
refused.  But  her  hopes  were  disappointed.  Though  she  earn- 
estly desired  to  be  permitted  to  go  and  see  her  “ dearly  beloved 
dying  daughter,”  for  only  one  hour,  should  no  longer  time  be 
granted,  and  though  she  willingly  offered  to  take  a guard  with 
her,  yea,  to  take  the  whole  garrison  along  with  her  as  a guard, 
should  it  be  required,  and  to  maintain  them  at  her  own  expense, 
while  she  made  this  visit ; yet  the  most  earnest  solicitations 
were  ineffectual.  These  cruel  men,  trifling  with  the  yearnings 
of  a mother’s  love,  refused  to  grant  so  reasonable  a request,  and 
thus  she  was  deprived  of  the  opportunity  of  seeing  her  daughter 
before  her  death.  To  such  as  know  a mother’s  heart,  it  is  need- 
less to  say  how  pungent  must  have  been  her  anguish  to  think, 
that  her  daughter  should  sicken,  die,  and  be  buried,  while  she, 
though  at  the  distance  of  not  more  than  two  miles,  was  only  per- 
mitted to  hear  of  all  this  as  each  mournful  event  successively 
happened.! 

* Mr.  Walter  Sandilands  was  the  son  of  William  Sandilands,  brother  to  the  fourth 
Lord  Torphichen,  by  his  wife,  who  was  a sister  of  Lady  Caldwell’s  father.  Both 
his  parents  were  “ distinguished  for  their  attachment  to  the  principles  of  the  pres- 
byterian  church  of  Scotland,  and  their  mansion-house  at  Hilderston  was  often  the 
hospitable  resort  of  the  persecuted  covenanters.”  Mr.  Walter  himself  ” retained  the 
same  attachment  to  protestant  and  presbyterian  principles  which  had  characterized 
the  family  from  the  days  of  their  illustrious  ancestor,  Sir  James  Sandilands,  the  friend 
and  patron  of  John  Knox.” — Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  441. 

t Sir  William  Cunningham,  in  his  MS.  account  of  Lady  Caldwell’s  sufferings, 


238 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


After  being  imprisoned  for  more  than  three  years,  Lady  Cald- 
well was  at  length  released,  in  answer  to  a petition  which  she 
presented  to  the  privy  council.  From  the  character  of  the  peti- 
tions presented  to  the  privy  council  by  the  imprisoned  covenant- 
ers, we  can  almost  always  learn  whether  a long  imprisonment 
had  the  effect  of  weakening  their  resolution,  or  whether  their 
steadfastness  of  purpose  remained  unshaken.  If  the  former  had 
been  the  effect,  some  concession  is  made,  as  an  engagement  to 
live  regularly,  or  to  obey  the  laws  ; if  the  latter,  an  entire  silence 
is  preserved  on  that  subject,  so  that  the  omission  is  pregnant  with 
meaning — is  a certain  evidence  that  the  spirit  was  unsubdued  by 
persecution.  This  last  was  the  form  of  Lady  Caldwell’s  petition. 
It  is  simply  a prayer  to  be  released  from  her  confinement,  on  the 
ground  of  her  ill  health,  and  her  impoverished  circumstances,  and 
contains  not  a single  statement  implying  the  least  wavering  or 
unsteadfastness  as  to  her  principles.  This  is  no  small  commen- 
dation. Imprisonment,  so  far  from  being  a light  punishment,  may 
be  rendered  the  most  bitter  and  crushing  to  the  spirit,  that  can  be 
inflicted,  and  when  protracted  during  months  and  years,  it  has  not 
unfrequently  subdued  the  fortitude  of  men,  who,  in  the  excitement 
and  activity  of  actual  conflict,  have  braved  death,  in  resisting 
arbitrary  and  unhallowed  impositions  upon  conscience.  Acting 
like  a slow  and  lingering  torture,  it  has  exhausted  the  patience 
of  the  spirit,  and  laid  prostrate  its  moral  heroism.  But  Lady 
Caldwell’s  moral  firmness,  after  an  imprisonment  of  more  than 
three  years,  remained  unmoved.  She  had  no  attachment  to  prison 
walls,  to  dank  and  confined  air;  for  she  had  experienced  their 
injurious  effects  in  exhausting  the  strength  of  her  frame.  She 
had  no  satisfaction  in  being  kept  from  the  society  of  her  children, 
for  she  had  found  in  this  her  greatest  earthly  comfort,  since  their 
father’s  death.  She  had  no  liking  for  the  numerous  privations 
and  hardships  of  her  captivity.  All  these  were  associated  in  her 
mind,  with  painful  feelings  and  recollection,  with  sighs,  tears, 
and  regrets — the  natural  companions  of  a prison’s  inmates.  But 
to  escape  from  them  she  would  not  compromise  her  integrity,  or 

■which  relates  chiefly  to  those  connected  with  her  imprisonment  in  Blackness  castle, 
concludes  thus : As  the  records  of  the  secret  council  will  vouch  a great  part  of  this 
narration,  so  Glasgow  affords  yet  many  living  witnesses  of  the  truth  of  what  is  before 
advanced,  and  the  neighborhood  of  Blackness,  there  being  several  honorable  persons 
yet  alive  who  can  bear  testimony  to  it,  as  well  as  yet  living  fellow-prisoners.  As 
also  the  truth  of  what  is  said  is  referred  to  the  declaration  of  the  present  laird  of 
Bedlormie,  then  deputy -governor  of  the  castle  of  Blackness,  upon  his  word  of  honor; 
yea,  there  is  a defiance  given  to  the  challenger,  to  search  if  he  can  find,  among  any 
of  the  records  of  the  jurisdictions  of  Scotland,  if  the  Lady  Caldwell  had  been  im- 
peached, or  convict,  any  other  way  but  in  the  manner  already  said." 


LADY  CALDWELL. 


239 


do  aiiglit  inconsistent  with  the  principles  for  which  she  was  hon- 
ored to  suffer  so  much.  The  petition  she  presented  to  the  privy 
council  is  as  follows  : — 

“ Unto  the  Right  Honorable  the  Lords  of  his  Majesty’s  Prhy 
Council — The  Petition  of  Barbara  Cunningham,  relict  of  Wil- 
liam Mure,  sometime  of  Caldwell,  prisoner  in  the  Castle  of 
Blackness,  Humbly  Sheweth, 

“ That  your  lordships’  petitioner  hath  been  detained  prisoner 
above  these  three  years,  for  alleged  being  present  at  a house- 
conventicle,  by  reason  whereof  she  is  become  very  valetudinary, 
and  is  also  reduced  to  great  difficulties,  being  (in  respect  of  her 
deceased  husband’s  forfeiture),  wholly  deprived  of  any  subsist- 
ence forth  of  that  estate,  either  to  her  or  her  children,  these  nine- 
teen years  begone. 

“ May  it  therefore  please  your  lordships  to  commiserate  my 
valetudinary  and  destitute  condition,  and  to  ordain  me  to  be  set 
at  liberty,  and  your  petitioner  shall  ever  pray,”  &c.* 

As  this  petition,  though  worded  respectfully,  makes  not  the 
least  acknowledgment  of  a fault,  nor  contains  any  engagement  to 
live  regularly  in  future,  it  was  by  no  means  calculated  to  concili- 
ate the  favor  of  the  lords  of  his  majesty’s  privy  council.  But  as 
James  VH.  was  then  beginning,  with  the  view  of  promoting  his 
scheme  of  introducing  popery  and  slavery  into  Britain,  to  profess 
great  zeal  for  the  toleration  of  protestant  dissenters,  the  omissions 
of  the  petition  of  the  stern  and  inflexible  covenantress  were  over- 
looked ; and  the  following  order  was  issued  for  her  liberation  : — 

“ Edinburgh,  21st  June,  1686. 

“ The  lords  of  his  majesty’s  privy  council  having  considered 
tho  bills  presented  by  Barbara  Cunningham,  Lady  Caldwell,  now 
prisoner  in  the  castle  of  Blackness,  desiring  liberty  upon  the 
considerations  therein  mentioned,  do  hereby  recommend  to  the 
earl  of  Linlithgow,  lord-justice-general,  and  chief  governor  of  the 
said  castle  of  Blackness,  to  grant,  order,  and  warrant,  to  set  the 
said  Lady  Caldwell  forthwith  at  liberty,  for  which  this  shall  be 
a sufficient  warrant  to  the  said  earl  and  all  others  concerned.”! 

According  to  this  order.  Lady  Caldwell,  without  coming  under 
any  engagement  whatever,  or  even  receiving  a caution  not  to 

* Warrants  of  Privy  Council.  Sir  William  Cunningham,  in  his  account  of  Lady 
Caldwell’s  sufferings,  and  Wodrow,  in  his  History,  incorrectly  say  that  she  was  dis- 
missed without  any  petition  having  been  presented  to  the  council  for  her  liberation, 
t W arrants  of  Privy  Council. 


240 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


offend  against  the  laws  in  future,  was  liberated,  and,  after  a long 
separation,  restored  to  the  bosom  of  her  family.  During  the  re- 
mainder of  the  persecution,  which  was  now  drawing  to  a close, 
she  was  permitted  to  live  with  her  children  in  peace  ; and  they 
lived  together  in  the  same  humble  condition  as  before,  earning 
their  subsistence  by  honest  industry. 

Tt  is  gratifying  to  know  that,  after  the  revolution,  justice,  in  so 
far  as  possible,  was  done  to  this  worthy  lady  and  her  family. 
The  forfeiture  of  her  husband  was  rescinded  by  the  Scottish  par- 
liament, not  only  by  the  general  act  of  July  4,  1690,  rescinding 
the  forfeitures  and  fines  of  the  covenanters,  from  the  first  of  Jan- 
uary, 1665,  to  the  5th  of  November,  1688,  in  which  his  name 
occurs,  among  some  hundreds  of  other  names,  but  by  another  act, 
19th  July,  1690,  which  expressly  rescinded  it  on  the  ground  of 
its  having  been  pronounced  by  the  justiciary  court  in  his  absence  ; 
which,  it  is  declared,  was  illegal,  and  therefore,  from  the  begin- 
ning, null  and  void.*  To  illustrate  further  the  good  inclination 
of  those  in  high  places,  after  the  revolution,  to  do  all  justice  to 
those  who  had  suffered  during  the  persecution,  it  is  worthy  of 
remark  that  her  then  only  surviving  child,  Barbara!  (who  had 
married  John  Fairlie  of  that  ilk),  having,  as  heiress  and  execu- 
trix to  her  father,  and  Lady  Caldwell  herself  having  for  her  life- 
rent,  right,  and  interest,  pursued  Sir  Thomas  Dalziel  of  Binns^ 
grandchild  to  the  donator,  before  the  lords  of  session,  for  pay- 
ment of  the  rents  of  the  estate  of  Caldwell  intromitted  with  by  the 
said  donator,  or  his  gratuitous  assignees,  during  the  forfeiture,  the 
lords  of  session,  on  the  5th  of  December,  1705,  found  Sir  Thomas 
liable  not  only  for  his  predecessor’s  bygone  actual  intromissions, 
but  for  the  whole  rental  of  the  estate  from  the  time  his  grand- 
father entered  into  the  possession,  and  even  for  omissions.  Some 
of  the  judges  thought  the  restitution  of  by  ones  very  hard.  But 
the  answer  was.  Durum  est,  sed  ita  lex  scripta  est.^  The  case 
having,  however,  been  carried,  by  Sir  Thomas  Dalziel,  to  the 
Scottish  parliament,  the  decision  of  the  court  of  session  was  al- 
tered on  the  20th  of  February,  1707,  and  Sir  Thomas  relieved 

* The  act  is  entitled,  “ Act  rescinding  forfeitures  in  absence  before  the  justice 
court,  preceding  the  year  1669,  and  restoring  Caldwell,  and  Kersland,  and  Mr. 
William  Veitch.*’ — Acts  of  the  Parliament  of  Scotland. 

t Lady  Caldwell’s  eldest  daughter,  Jean,  who  had  married  Colonel  John  Erskine 
of  Carnock,  died,  without  issue,  a few  years  after  the  revolution,  perhaps  in  1695. 
On  the  8th  of  January,  1696,  by  decreet  of  the  commissary  court  of  Edinburgh,  Bar- 
bara Mure,  her  sister,  was  decerned  nearest  of  kin  to  her. — Register  of  Confirmed 
Testaments,  24th  July,  1696. 

t That  is,  It  may  be  hard,  but  such  is  the  law/' — Morison’s  Dictionary  of  De- 
cisionsi,  pp.  4694,  4750. 


LADY  COLVILL. 


241 


from  his  liability  for  the  bygone  rents  of  the  estate  of  Caldwell 
preceding  the  term  of  Martinmas,  1688,  on  account  of  certain 
specialities  in-  his  case,  distinguishing  it  from  other  cases  falling 
under  the  act  rescissory.* 

From  the  references  made  in  these  proceedings  to  the  subject 
of  this  notice,  it  is  evident  that  she  was  then  alive.  But  how 
long  she  survived  we  have  not  been  able  to  ascertain. 


LADY  COLVILL. 

Lady  Colvill,  whose  maiden  name  was  Margaret  Wemyss, 
was  the  daughter  of  David  Wemyss,  of  Fingask,  and  wife  of 
Robert,  Lord  Colvill,  who  succeeded  his  uncle,  of  the  same  name, 
in  1662,  as  second  Lord  Colvill,  of  Ochiltree.  In  1671  she  be- 
came a widow,  his  lordship  having  died  at  Cleish,  on  the  12th 
of  February  that  year.  She  had  issue  to  him  a son,  Robert,  who 
succeeded  his  father  as  third  Lord  Colvill  of  Ochiltree  ; and  two 
daughters,  1,  the  honorable  Margaret  Colvill,  who  was  married 
in  1701,  to  Sir  John  Ayton,  of  Ayton,  in  Fife,  being  his  second 

wife ; and,  2,  the  honorable Colvill,  who  was  married  to 

the  Rev.  Mr.  Logan,  minister  of  Torry.f 

The  severity  with  which  Lady  Colvill  was  treated  by  the  gov- 
ernment, may  be  regarded  as  an  involuntary  testimony  to  the  fi- 
delity and  steadfastness  with  which  she  adhered  to  the  persecu- 
ted cause  of  presbytery.  She  was  classed  among  that  “ despe- 
rate and  implacable  party  who  keep  seditious  and  numerous  field- 
conventicles,  and  that  in  open  contempt  of  our  authority,  as  if  it 
were  to  brave  us  and  those  that  are  in  places  of  trust  under  us.”J 
Other  marks  of  the  government’s  displeasure  were  fixed  upon 
her,  all  which  in  fact  were  so  many  badges  of  honorable  distinc- 
tion. 

She  became  early  conspicuous  as  a frequenter  of  field-conven- 
ticles ; and  her  name  appears  among  the  ladies  against  whom 
the  government  first  proceeded  on  that  account,  an  honor  for 
which  she  was  no  doubt  indebted  to  Archbishop  Sharp,  who,  as 
he  resided  in  Fife,  was  particularly  zealous  in  his  endeavors  to 
arrest  and  put  down  the  progress  of  “ fanaticism”  within  his  own 
borders,  and  who  had  a great  abhorrence  of  fanatic  ladies. 

* Acts  of  the  Parliament  of  Scotland,  March,  20,  1707. 

I Douglas's  Peerage,  vol.  i.,  p.  361.  t Wodrow's  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  238. 

21 


242 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


About  the  close  of  the  year  1672,  and  in  the  years  1673  and 
1674,  meetings  in  the  open  fields  were  frequently  held  in  Kinross- 
shire,  where  Lady  Colvill  resided  ; and  she  was  in  the  habit  of 
attending  these  meetings,  as  well  as  of  hospitably  entertaining  in 
her  house  the  ministers  who  preached  at  them,  among  whom 
were  Mr.  John  Welsh,  Mr.  Samuel  Arnot,  Mr.  Gabriel  Semple, 
Mr.  Thomas  Hog,  minister  at  Larbert,  and  many  others.*  The 
zeal  and  liberality  with  which  she  countenanced  the  preaching 
of  the  gospel  at  field  conventicles,  and  befriended  the  persecuted 
ministers,  coming  to  the  ears  of  the  government,  the  storm  of 
persecution  began  to  gather  around  her.  The  more  immediate 
cause  of  this  was  the  following  circumstance  : a party  of  soldiers 
had  been  sent  to  disperse  a field  conventicle  held  in  the  Lomonds 
of  Fife  ; they  met  with  no  resistance  from  the  people  ; but  Sharp, 
to  excite  the  council  to  greater  violence,  falsely  alleged  that  the 
people  had  made  resistance.  This  fabricated  story  being  com- 
municated to  the  court,  a letter  came  from  the  king  to  the  coun- 
cil, dated  June  23d,  1674,  requiring  the  council  to  bring  the 
ringleaders  of  that  disorder  to  punishment,  and  promising  to  send 
for  their  assistance  some  forces  from  England  and  Ireland.! 
This  letter  occasioned  a bitter  persecution  against  all  in  Fife, 
both  men  and  women,  who  attended  conventicles.  A long  cata- 
logue of  names,  including  several  ladies  as  well  as  gentlemen, 
and  a number  of  the  common  people,  was  sent  over  to  the  agents 
of  the  government  in  Fife,  who  were  required  to  summon  them 
to  appear  before  the  privy  council  at  Edinburgh.^  Lady  Colvill’s 
name  was  in  this  list ; and  she,  with  several  other  ladies  and 
gentlemen  were  summoned  to  appear  before  the  lords  of  the  privy 
council  on  the  9th  of  July.  The  charges  for  which  they  were 
summoned  to  answer,  were  their  keeping  and  being  present  at 
house  and  field  conventicles  at  Dunfermline,  Cleish,  Orval,  and 
other  places  ; their  inviting  and  countenancing  outed  ministers 
in  their  invasion  and  intrusion  upon  the  kirks  and  pulpits  of  For- 
gan,  Balmerinoch,  Collessie,  Monzie,  and  Auchtermuchty,  and 
hearing  them  preach  and  pray  therein  ; and  their  harboring,  re- 
setting, and  entertaining  Mr.  John  Welsh,  a declared  and  pro- 
claimed traitor,  in  their  houses  and  elsewhere.  Lady  Colvill 
and  the  others  who  were  summoned,  not  being  prepared  to  make 
any  confessions  of  criminality,  or  to  promise  to  abstain  from  at- 
tending conventicles  in  future,  deemed  it  prudent  to  disobey  the 

* Account  of  the  Sufferings  of  the  Covenanters  in  Kinross-shire,  W odrow  MSS., 
vol.  xxxiii.,  folio,  No.  143. 

t Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii-,  p.  238.  t Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  545. 


LADY  COLVILL. 


243 


summons,  probably  dreading  imprisonment  had  they  made  their 
appearance.  For  this  contempt  of  authority  they  were,  upon  the 
15th  and  16th  of  July,  that  same  year,  denounced  his  majesty’s 
rebels,  and  put  to  the  horn  at  the  market  crosses  of  Cupar  and 
Forfar,  by  virtue  of  letters  of  denunciation,  raised  and  executed 
at  the  instance  of  his  majesty’s  advocate.*  Lady  Colvill  was 
afterward  summoned  to  appear  before  a committee  of  the  privy 
council,  which  was  to  meet  at  Cupar  on  the  15th  of  September. 
She  did  not  compear,  but  was  fined,  and  ordained  to  pay  her  fine 
before  the  1st  of  November.  To  what  amount  she  was  fined  we 
are  not  informed.! 

Against  this  lady  the  council  proceeded  still  further.  On  the 
6th  of  August,  1675,  they  issued  letters  of  intercommuning 
against  her  and  upward  of  one  hundred  more  individuals,  among 
whom  were  several  other  ladies  of  rank.  Intercommuning  was 
a very  severe  sentence,  making,  as  it  did,  every  man  or  woman 
who  should  harbor,  entertain,  or  converse  with  the  persons  inter- 
communed,  equally  guilty  with  them.  By  these  letters,  all  sher- 
iffs, stewards,  bailies  of  regalities,  and  bailiaries,  and  their  dep- 
uties, and  magistrates  of  burghs,  are  required  “ to  apprehend  and 
commit  to  prison  any  of  the  persons  above  written,  our  rebels, 
whom  you  shall  find  within  your  respective  jurisdictions,  accord- 
ing to  justice,  as  you  shall  answer  to  us  thereupon. ’’J  The  let- 
ters were  proclaimed  in  Cupar  in  the  beginning  of  October, 
1675.11  “ Perhaps,”  says  Wodrow,  “it  was  every  way  without 

a parallel,  that  so  many  ladies  and  gentlewomen  married,  should 
be  put  in  such  circumstances  ; but  this  was  to  strike  the  greater 
terror  on  their  husbands  and  other  gentlewomen.” 

Kirkton,  in  narrating  this  case,  says  : “ But  though  the  coun- 
cil sisted  in  their  persecutions  upon  denunciation  and  intercom- 
muning, so  did  not  our  officers  and  soldiers,  who  rested  not,  but 
upon  imprisoning,  robbing,  wounding,  killing  the  poor  fanatics 

* Wodrow,  in  his  History  (vol.  ii.,  p.  242),  mentions  a Lady  Colvill,  who  was 
summoned  to  appear  before  the  privy  council  on  the  9th  of  July,  1674,  and  who  was 
acquitted,  on  her  compearing-  before  the  council,  in  consequence  of  her  bringing  with 
her  a testimonial  in  her  favor  from  the  minister  of  her  parish,  and  promising  not  to 
go  to  any  conventicles  in  future.  But  she  was  evidently  a different  person  from  the 
subject  of  this  sketch.  On  consulting  the  Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council,  we  find 
that  her  maiden  name  was  “ Dame  Euphan  Mortoun." 

t Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  551. 

t Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii , pp.  286-288.  Mr.  John  Carstairs,  in  a letter  to  Mr. 
Robert  MWard,  then  in  Rotterdam  dated  August  6,  1675,  says,  “ This  day  the  let- 
ters of  intercommuning  were  passed.  If  we  were  in  any  tolerable  frame  for  such  a 
mercy,  as,  alas ! we  are  not,  I would  take  this  furious  driving  as  a token  for  good, 
and  some  presage  that  their  time  would  be  but  short.” — Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  lix., 
folio,  No.  36.  II  Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  p.  562. 


244 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


and  conventiclers,  where  they  might  find  them  ; and  truly,  many 
of  our  soldiers  made  persecution  not  so  much  a duty  of  tneir 
office  as  an  employment  of  gain.”*  The  concluding  part  of  this 
extract  is  perfectly  correct ; but  Kirkton  is  mistaken  when  he 
says  that  the  council  “ sisted  in  their  persecution  upon  denuncia- 
tion and  intercommuning.”  So  far  was  this  from  being  the  case, 
that  in  a very  severe  proclamation  against  conventicles  and  other 
disorders,  issued  by  the  council  on  the  1st  of  March,  1676,  the 
magistrates  of  the  several  burghs  are  required  to  seize  upon  any 
persons  who  were  or  should  in  future  be  intercommuned ; all 
noblemen,  gentlemen,  magistrates,  and  all  other  subjects,  are 
forbidden  to  intercommune  with,  harbor  or  relieve  any  of  the 
persons  who  were  or  should  hereafter  be  intercommuned,  under 
the  pains  due  to  intercommuners  by  law  ; and  a reward  of  500 
merks  is  offered  to  such  as  should  discover  any  person  guilty  of 
intercommuning  with,  harboring,  or  relieving  any  of  the  inter- 
communed.f On  the  27th  of  April,  that  same  year,  in  prosecu- 
tion of  the  same  object,  the  following  letter,  signed  by  the  duke 
of  Rothes,  in  name  of  the  council,  was  sent  to  the  sheriffs  of  the 
several  shires  : — 

‘‘  Right  Honorable  : The  lords  of  his  majesty’s  privy  coun- 
cil, at  their  last  meeting,  did  order  that  the  enclosed  letters  of 
intercommuning  should  be  transmitted  to  you,  that  you  may  with 
all  possible  diligence  cause  search  for,  apprehend  and  imprison, 
such  of  the  said  persons  as  are,  or  shall  happen  to  come  within 
the  bounds  of  your  shire,  and  have  ordered  that  against  the  22d 
day  of  June  next,  you  report  a particular  account  of  your  dili- 
gence to  the  council.  This  the  council  has  appointed  to  be  sig- 
nified to  you,  by  your  humble  servant, 

“ Rothes  Cancell,  I.  P.  D.”J 

Lady  Colvill,  like  her  friends  against  whom  these  letters  of 
intercommuning  were  issued,  lay  under  this  sentence  till  the 
king’s  proclamation,  dated  Whitehall,  June  29,  1679,  by  which 
all  letters  of  intercommuning  were  suspended,  a measure  which 

relieved  multitudes  who  were  fugitives  and  intercommuned, 

* Kirkton’s  History,  p.  363,  364.  t Wodrow's  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  319. 

t Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council.  It  is,  however,  true,  as  Kirkton  observes, 
that  at  this  time  “ intercommuning  was  not  so  stretched  and  improven  as  after  Both- 
well  bridge,  when  converse  with  a few  rebels  made  almost  all  Scotland  as  guilty 
as  if  they  had  been  in  arms  against  the  king  at  Bothwell  Bridge." — Kirkton’s  His* 
tory,  p.  363. 


LADY  COLVILL. 


245 


and  upon  their  hiding  for  many  years.”*  But  while  lying  under 
this  sentence,  her  zeal  was  in  no  wise  abated.  She  still  con- 
tinued to  attend  conventicles,  and  to  entertain  in  her  hotise  the 
nonconforming  ministers  who  came  to  preach  in  that  part  of  the 
country  where  she  lived.  In  the  year  1677,  when  no  public 
meetings  were  held  in  Kinross-shire  for  divine  worship,  except 
during  the  night,  because  of  the  fury  of  the  troopers,  who  lay 
more  than  a year  and  a half  in  Kinross,  meetings  for  sermon 
were  sometimes  held  in  her  house  ; and  her  character  and  prin- 
ciples being  well  known,  she  had  her  own  share  of  the  annoy- 
ances and  severities  inflicted  by  the  troopers,  who  perambulated 
the  country  to  put  down  house  and  field  conventicles.  From 
Captain  William  Carstairs,t  in  particular,  she  suffered  no  small 
degree  of  molestation  and  hardship.  This  man,  who  had  no 
commission  from  the  king,  but  who  had  been  sent  out  by  Arch- 
bishop Sharp,  under  pretence  of  searching  for  denounced  and 
intercommuned  persons,  was  at  that  time  extremely  active  against 
the  nonconformists  in  the  east  of  Fife,  on  whom,  with  a party  of 
about  a dozen  of  soldiers,  he  committed  many  cruelties.  Re- 
ceiving information  of  a conventicle  which  had  been  kept  in 
Lady  Colvill’s  house,  at  Cleish,  on  a sabbath-day,  in  the  month 
of  November,  at  which  a preacher,  named  Mr.  Robert  Anderson 
officiated,  and  learning  that  Mr.  Anderson  was  lodged  in  her 
house,  he  came  with  his  party  to  the  house  of  Cleish  early  on  the 
Monday  morning,  in  order  to  make  sure  of  apprehending  his  in- 
tended prisoners — so  early,  indeed,  as  about  two  or  three  hours 
before  day — and,  rapping  at  the  gate  of  the  house,  surprised  and 
alarmed  all  the  inmates.  Having  made  their  way  into  the  house, 
they  apprehended  Mr.  Anderson,  and  William  Sethrum,  the 
chamberlain,  and  “ broke  Robert  Steedman’s  head,  who  made  his 
escape  ; and  when  the  captain  missed  him,  he  fell  into  a fit  of 
the  convulsion,  and  continued  two  or  three  hours  in  it.”  This 
proved  a very  fortunate  circumstance  for  Lady  Colvill  and  her  son. 
Lord  Colvill,  who  was  then  a child,  for  during  the  time  that  Car- 

* Wodrow’e  Historj",  vol.  iii..  pp.  149,  151. 

t Carstairs  was  “ a wretch  who  earned  a living  in  Scotland  by  going  disguised  to 
conventicles,  and  then  informing  again.st  the  preachers." — Macauley’s  History  of 
England,  vol.  i.,  p.  237.  It  was  believed  that  at  the  time  when  the  supposed  popish 
plot  in  England,  in  1680,  excited  so  great  alarm,  this  infamous  man,  to  get  money, 
lent  his  aid  by  f^alse  testimony  to  the  execution  of  several  guiltless  persons.  “ His 
end,"  says  Macauley,  quoting  from  Bishop  Burnet,  “was  all  horror  and  despair, 
and  with  his  last  breath  he  had  told  his  attendants  to  throw  him  into  the  ditch  like 
a dog,  for  that  he  was  not  fit  to  sleep  in  a Christian  burial-ground." — Ibid.,  vol.  i., 
p.  482. 


21 


246 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


stairs  lay  in  the  fit,  they  made  their  escape.  On  recovering,  he 
carried  Mr.  Anderson  and  the  chamberlain  to  the  lolbooth  of 
Falkland.*  To  escape  the  fury  of  this  miscreant,  whose  sever- 
ities toward  others,  and  whose  visits  to  her  own  house  gave  her 
but  too  just  ground  for  apprehension.  Lady  Colvill  was  obliged 
to  remain  for  some  time  from  her  house,  and,  like  hundreds  more 
of  the  covenanters,  who  were  hunted  like  moor-fowl  or  wild 
beasts,  to  hide  herself  in  the  mountains  and  fields,  by  which  her 
health  was  greatly  impaired.! 

As  might  be  expected  of  so  zealous  a covenanter.  Lady  Colvill 
preferred  having  in  her  family  servants  whose  sentiments  in  reli- 
gious matters  corresponded  with  her  own  ; nor  in  this  preference 
could  she  be  charged  with  illiberality,  when  it  is  considered  that, 
in  such  trying  and  dangerous  times,  there  was  no  inconsiderable 
risk  that  servants  of  opposite  principles  might,  from  their  hatred 
of  nonconformity,  or  from  their  love  of  filthy  lucre,  have  become 
spies  in  the  family,  and  betrayed  their  mistress,  or  have  involved 
her  in  trouble.  So  early  as  1670,  before  the  death  of  her  hus- 
band, some  of  her  servants  were  prosecuted  for  attending  a field 
conventicle.  Margaret  Morton,  her  gentlewoman,  and  Elizabeth 
Young,  her  servant-maid,  having  been  present  at  the  field-meet- 
ing held  upon  Death  hill,  in  the  west  of  Fife,  on  the  18th  of  June, 
1670,  which  created  much  noise,  and  greatly  exasperated  the 
government,  were,  along  with  many  others  in  the  shire  of  Kin- 
ross, immediately  summoned  to  appear  before  the  privy  council ; 
and  making  their  appearance,  they,  with  the  rest  who  appeared, 
were  thrown  into  prison,  where  they  were  kept  for  a long  time.J 
Thirteen  or  fourteen  years  later,  several  of  her  servants  (among 
whom  was  Margaret  Morton,  a highly-valued  domestic,  judging 
from  the  lengthened  period  during  which  she  had  served  her 
ladyship)  were  again  punished  for  their  presbyterian  principles. 
From  a note  of  a decreet,  dated  December  26,  1683,  and  July 
15,  1684,  recorded  in  the  sheriff-court  books  of  Fife,  at  the  in- 
stance of  Mr.  John  Malcolm,  procurator  fiscal,  against  several 
persons  for  withdrawing  from  the  church,  keeping  house  and 
field  conventicles,  &c.,  we  learn  that  Margaret  Morton,  gentle- 
woman to  Lady  Colvill,  William  Morton,  and  William  Young, 
servants  to  the  said  lady,  all  in  the  parish  of  Cleish,  were  fined 

^ Kirkton  says,  “ William  Sethrum  he  laid  in  prison,  but  the  doors  were  opened, 
and  he  set  free.’* — History,  p.  380. 

t Account  of  the  Sufferings  of  the  Covenanters  in  Kinross-shire,  Wodrow  MSS., 
vol.  xxxiii.,  folio,  No.  143. 

t Ibid.,  vol.  xxxiii.,  foUo,  No.  143.  Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  pp.  53C-538. 


each  in  the  sum  of  three  hundred  pounds  Scots,  and  were  re- 
ported to  have  fled.*' 

To  give  her  son  a sound  religious  education,  was  a special 
part  of  Lady  Colvill’s  care.  Besides  instructing  him  in  the  com- 
mon doctrines  and  precepts  of  Christianity,  it  was  her  endeavor 
to  train  him  up  in  the  principles  of  presbytery  and  of  the  cove- 
nant, which  in  her  judgment  were  founded  on  the  word  of  God, 
and  connected  with  the  honor  of  her  Lord  and  Savior.  But  the 
comfort  and  happiness  of  employing  her  widowhood  in  this  lau- 
dable and  delightful  task,  she  was  not  permitted  to  enjoy.  In 
violation  of  the  laws  of  nature  atid  society,  as  well  as  of  the  law 
of  God,  the  privy  council  resolved  to  take  her  son  from  her,  and 
place  him  under  guardians  and  teachers  who  would  instil  into 
him  such  principles  as  would  meet  -the  approbation  of  the  gov- 
ernment. From  the  strength  of  the  opposition  which  persecu- 
tors have  often  encountered  in  prosecuting  their  scheme  for  de- 
stroying the  church,  it  has  often  suggested  itself  to  them  that  one 
of  the  most  important  means  of  gaining  their  object  is  to  prevent 
the  young  from  being  instructed  in  the  persecuted  principles. 
Julian  the  apostate,  the  more  effectually  to  suppress  and  destroy 
Christianity,  shut  up  the  schools  and  colleges  of  the  Christians, 
authorizing  only  pagans  as  the  teachers  of  youth,  in  the  confi- 
dence that  the  tender  minds  of  the  rising  generation  would  re- 
ceive at  one  and  the  same  time  the  impressions  of  literature  and 
idolatry.  A similar  policy  was  adopted  by  the  rulers  of  France, 
who,  on  the  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantz,  commanded  the 
Huguenots,  that  those  henceforward  born  of  them  should  be  bap- 
tized in  the  Roman  catholic  religion,  and  be  placed  under  in- 
structors who  were  the  enemies  of  their  faith,  to  be  educated  in 
the  superstition  which  they  abhorred.  The  same  cruel  and  ty- 
rannical system  was  adopted  against  the  presbyterians  of  Scot- 
land. To  poison  the  springs  and  fountains  of  learning,  it  was 
ordained  by  parliament,  so  early  as  1662,  that  none  should  be 
principal,  masters,  regents,  or  other  professors  in  universities 
or  colleges,  unless  they  owned  the  government  of  the  church  by 
arclibishopsr  and  bishops,  as  then  established  by  law,  and  that 
none  should  teach  any  public  school,  or  be  pedagogues  to  the 
children  of  persons  of  quality,  without  the  license  of  the  bishop 
of  the  diocese. t But  detestable  as  was  the  tyranny  of  these 

^ Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxxiii.,  folio,  No.  144. 

t Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  i.,  p.  267.  Presbyterian  teachers  sometimes  attempted 
to  form  schools  for  the  education  of  the  young,  but  they  did  so  at  the  risk  of  being 
imprisoned  and  otherwise  punished — there  being  always  individuals  who,  from  va- 
rious motives,  were  sure  to  inform  the  government  again.st  them.  The  following 


248 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


enactments,  the  government  went  even  still  further.  The  chil- 
dren of  presbyterians  of  quality  were  taken  from  their  parents, 
and  placed  in  the  hands  of  such  as  would  educate  them  in  prin- 
ciples which  they  repudiated  as  contrary  to  the  word  of  God, 
and  to  the  solemn  obligations  under  which  the  nation  had  been 
brought. 

On  learning  the  intention  of  the  government  to  take  her  son 
from  her  and  place  him  under  prelatic  teachers.  Lady  Colvill 
determined,  as  was  natural  enough,  to  keep  her  son,  if  possible, 
from  falling  into  their  hands,  and  with  this  view  she  removed 
him  out  of  the  way.  By  this  the  indignation  of  the  government 
being  excited,  they  immediately  instituted  proceedings  against 
her.  In  the  first  place,  they  fined  her  in  her  absence  in  the  sum 
of  five  thousand  merks  Scots  ;*  and  failing  to  pay  this  sum,  she 
was  apprehended  and  imprisoned  in  the  tolbooth  of  Edinburgh. 
Lord  Fountainhall  gives  the  following  account  of  the  cause  of 
her  imprisonment:  “ December  2,  1684.  The  Lady  Colvill  is 
imprisoned  in  Edinburgh  tolbooth,  by  the  privy  council,  for  her 
irregularities,  and  particularly  for  breeding  up  her  son,  the  Lord 
Colvill,  in  fanaticism  and  other  disloyal  principles,  and  abstract- 
ing and  putting  him  out  of  the  way,  when  the  council  was  going 
to  commit  his  education  to  others  ; for  which  we  have  acts  of 
parliament  as  to  the  children  of  papists,  which  may  be  extended 
a paritate  to  others.”!  The  reader  is  to  observe  that  this  writer 
was  an  enemy  to  the  presbyterians,  whom,  though  he  was  more 
moderate  than  the  most  of  his  kind  in  his  day,  he  regarded  as 
fanatics,;  and  that  his  account  of  this  lady  is  tinged  with  his 
party  prejudices.  His  exaggerated  and  colored  statement,  when 
translated  into  the  simple  language  of  truth,  isj  that  she  was  im- 
prisoned for  withdrawing  from  her  parish  church,  attending  house 
and  field  conventicles,  and  particularly  for  training  up  her  son. 
Lord  Colvill,  in  the  principles  of  presbytery  and  of  the  covenant. 

quotation  from  Fountainh all's  Historical  Notices  (p.  294)  is  a specimen  of  what  fre- 
quently happened  in  cases  of  this  nature:  “ 2d  June,  1681.  The  private  school- 
master in  Edinburgh  being  called  before  the  privy  council  and  complained  on  by 
the  master  of  the  high  grammar-school  (one  school  is  far  from  being  able  to  serve 
Edinburgh  now) ; there  are  Mr.  Strang,  Mr.  William  Greenlaw,  and  two  or  three 
others  of  them  imprisoned,  till  they  find  caution  not  to  teach  Latin  till  they  be  licensed 
by  the  bishop:  for  several  of  them  were  outed  ministers,  and  others  who  were  sus- 
pected to  poison  the  young  ones  with  disloyal  principles,  so  that  the  regents  of  the 
colleges  defended  themselves,  that  many  of  their  youth  were  infected  and  leavened 
ere  they  came  to  them ; and  even  when  they  are  licensed,  not  to  teach  the  grammar, 
but  only  the  rudiments  and  vocables ; for  then  the  children  may  be  come  to  that 
strength  as  to  go  to  the  high  school." 

* That  is,  277Z.  65.  Qd.  sterling. 

t Fountainhall’s  Decisions  of  the  Lords  of  Session,  vol.  i.,  p*  316. 


LADY  COLVILL. 


349 


The  cell  into  which  this  lady  was  cast  was  one  of  the  worst 
in  the  prison.  It  was  a narrow  dark  room,  where  she  required 
to  burn  candles  during  the  whole  day,  and  where  she  was  with- 
out fire,  though  it  was  in  the  depth  of  winter.  It  might  be 
thought,”  says  a MS.  account  of  the  sufferings  of  that  period 
“ that  persons  of  quality  and  honor  were  not  concerned  in  these 
sufferings  ; but  the  contrary  is  evident,  as,  besides  other  instances, 
in  the  case  of  my  Lady  Colvill,  who,  being  fined  in  absence,  at 
last  was  made  prisoner  in  the  tolbooth  of  Edinburgh,  in  a little 
room  where  she  could  not  get  the  use  of  fire  and  the  benefit  of 
the  light  of  day,  and  that  for  some  months  in  the  winter  season.”* 
And  in  another  MS.  of  the  same  period,  entitled  “ Grievances 
from  Scotland,  1661-1688,”  the  following  is  specified  as  a griev- 
ance : “ My  Lady  Colvill  was  put  in  the  tolbooth  of  Edinburgh, 
in  a strait,  dark,  fireless  room,  where,  all  day  long  she  behooved 
to  keep  candles  burning ; and  was  thus  kept  for  a long  time, 
because  she  would  not  deliver  up  her  son,  my  Lord  Colvill. 
Their  quarrel  with  her  was  her  not  countenancing  the  profane 
clergy.”! 

After  lying  for  some  weeks  in  this  narrow,  cold,  and  gloomy 
cell,  than  which  a worse  was  not  appropriated  to  robbers  and 
murderers.  Lady  Colvill,  from  the  privations  and  hardships  she 
endured,  was  induced  to  petition  the  privy  council  that  she  might 
be  removed  to  a more  convenient  room  in  the  prison  ; and  the 
council,  at  their  meeting,  on  the  24th  of  December,  1684,  ‘‘hav- 
ing considered  her  petition,  gave  order  and  warrant  to  the  mag- 
istrates of  Edinburgh,  and  keepers  of  the  tolbooth  thereof,  to 
accommodate  her  with  a more  convenient  room  than  that  which 
she  is  nowin,  and  to  detain  her  prisoner  therein  till  further  order.”! 

In  consequence  of  this  order  she  appears  to  have  been  removed 
to  “ a more  convenient  room”  in  the  prison  ; but,  in  those  days, 
the  best  of  the  Scottish  prisons  were  cheerless  and  unwholesome 
dungeons  ; and  her  health  soon  began  to  be  affected.  By  the 
harsh  treatment  to  which  she  had  formerly  been  subjected,  in 
being  driven  to  the  mountains,  to  shelter  herself  from  a ruthless 
soldiery,  her  constitution  had  been  greatly  shaken  ; and  it  did 
not  now  possess  vigor  enough  for  the  endurance  of  a rigorous 
and  tedious  imprisonment.  After  she  had  been  shut  up  for  nearly 
three  months,  her  bodily  indisposition  became  so  great  that  her 
life  was  in  danger.  In  these  circumstances  she  presented  a 
petition  to  the  privy  council,  which  was  supported  by  the  testi- 

Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xl,  folio,  No.  6.  f Ibid.,  vol.  xl.,  folio,  No.  3. 

X Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council. 


250 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


monial  of  a physician,  praying  that  she  might  enjoy  a temporary 
release  for  the  recovery  of  her  health,  but  containing  no  admission 
of  the  justice  of  her  imprisonment,  nor  any  engagement  that,  in 
matters  of  religion,  she  would  in  future  live  and  act  as  the  gov- 
ernment were  pleased  to  dictate.  In  answer  to  this  petition,  the 
council,  at  their  meeting  on  the  17th  of  March,  gave  order  and 
warrant  to  the  magistrate  of  Edinburgh  to  set  her  at  liberty,  upon 
her  finding  sufficient  caution,  under  the  penalty  of  the  fine  for 
which  she  is  incarcerated,  and  to  confine  herself  to  a chamber 
in  Edinburgh,  and  to  re-enter  the  said  prison  upon  the  second 
of  April  next.”* 

At  the  time  when  Lady  Colvill  was  apprehended  and  impris- 
oned in  the  tolbooth  of  Edinburgh,  her  son.  Lord  Colvill,  was 
attending  the  college  of  Edinburgh.  On  learning  what  had  be- 
fallen his  mother,  and  hearing  farther  that  orders  had  been  given 
to  apprehend  and  imprison  him  also,  the  youth,  in  great  conster- 
nation, fled  from  the  city ; nor  does  it  appear  that  he  returned 
again  to  the  college  that  session.  To  his  mother  this  was  a 
source  of  great  uneasiness  ; and  she  was  extremely  anxious  that 
he  should  be  brought  back  to  the  college  to  prosecute  his  studies. 
This  appears  from  a petition  which  she  presented  to  the  council, 
when  the  day  appointed  for  her  re-entering  prison  arrived,  at 
which  time  she  was  still  very  much  unwell.  After  stating  that 
the  council  had  been  pleased  to  grant  her  temporary  liberty,  in 
order  to  use  means  for  the  recovery  of  her  health,  but  that  her 
physicians  had  declared  that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  enter 
on  a course  of  medicinal  treatment,  with  a view  to  her  recovery 
in  so  short  a time,  she  goes  on  to  say,  that  what  troubled  her 
more  (though  she  was  brought  very  low  by  sickness),  was,  that 
by  her  surprising  imprisonment,  her  son  did  run  away,  hearing 
that  a party  was  ordered  to  apprehend  him  likewise  ; and  that 
now  should  she  again  enter  prison,  neither  she  herself,  nor  her 
friends,  would  be  able  to  prevail  upon  him  to  return  to  the  col- 
lege to  his  studies,  because  he  apprehended  that  so  long  as  the 
council  inclined  to  keep  her  prisoner,  they  would  likewise  keep 
him  a prisoner.  She  engages  that  should  the  council  allow  her 
any  competent  time,  she  would,  upon  the  word  and  honor  of  a 
gentlewoman,  take  pains  and  concur  with  his  friends  to  the  ut- 
most of  her  ability,  to  bring  him  back  to  the  college  ; and  after 
he  is  once  settled  there,  she  expresses  her  willingness  to  be  dis- 
posed of  as  the  council  should  think  fit,  and  in  the  meantime 
offers  to  give  sufficient  security  that  she  would  present  herself 
* Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council. 


LADY  COLVILL. 


251 


before  the  council  when  called.  On  these  grounds,  she  humbly 
supplicates  that  the  council  would  be  pleased  t^  allow  her  some 
competent  time  for  the  purpose  specified,  the  state  of  her  health 
being  such,  that  she  would  require  to  be  carried  to  prison  on  a 
bed,  and  she  being  fully  resolved  to  loy  the  time  which  the 
council  should  allow  her,  in  bringing  back  and  settling  her  son. 
Having  considered  this  petition  at  their  meeting  on  the  3d  of 
April,  the  council  “ continue  the  petitioner’s  liberty  forth  of  the 
prison  until  this  day  seven  night,  upon  the  terms  and  caution  as 
formerly.”* 

On  the  14th  of  March,  1685,  the  council  “ gave  order  for  set- 
ting at  liberty  any  women  prisoners  for  receipt  or  harboring  of 
rebels,  or  on  account  of  their  wicked  principles,  upon  their 
swearing  the  abjuration  of  the  late  traitorous  paper,t  and  likewise 
giving  their  oaths  that  they  shall  not  hereafter  reset,  harbor,  or 
keep  intelligence  with  rebels  and  fugitives. But  this  act  was 
intended  to  apply  exclusively  to  such  imprisoned  women  as  be- 
longed to  the  society  people,  or  Cameronians  ; and  as  Lady  Col- 
vill  did  not  belong  to  that  party,  this  act  brought  her  no  relief. 
There  is,  however,  another  consideration — the  cupidity  of  the 
government — which  accounts  for  the  greater  leniency  shown  to^ 
ward  these  Cameronian  women,  than  toward  this  lady.  Where- 
ever  these  rapacious  rulers  found  wealthy  presbyterians,  their 
watchword,  like  that  of  one  of  Shakspere’s  characters;  was 
“ Down  with  them,  fleece  them,”  and  getting  them  once  within 
their  grasp,  they  did  not  quit  their  hold  till  they  had  stripped 
them  of  all,  or  of  much  that  they  possessed.  These  Cameronian 
women  being  without  exception  poor,  no  money  could  be  extract- 
ed from  them  ; but  Lady  Colvill  being  a richer  prey,  the  govern- 
ment had  an  eye  upon  her  fine,  and  to  squeeze  from  her  the  5,000 
merks,  continued  relentlessly  to  harass  her.  At  their  meeting 
on  the  16th  of  April,  the  lords  of  his  majesty’s  privy  council 
“ grant  warrant  to  his  majesty’s  advocate,  to  raise  a process  be- 
fore the  council,  against  the  Lord  Colvill  and  his  mother  for  dis- 
orders and  at  the  same  meeting,  they  “ grant  warrant  to  the 
clerks  of  the  council  to  receive  caution  from  the  Lady  Colvill  for 
her  re-entering  prison  within  the  tolbooth  of  Edinburgh  when 
called,  under  the  penalty  of  five  thousand  merks. ”|1  She  appears 

^ Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council.  t Ibid.  ||  Ibid. 

t This  was  an  oath  abjuring  a paper  emitted  by  the  society  people  entitled,  “ The 
Apologetic  Declaration  and  Admonitory  Vindication  of  the  True  Presbyterians  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  especially  anent  Intelligencers  and  Informers.'’  For  a 
more  particular  account  of  this  paper,  and  of  the  oath  abjuring  it,  see  notices  of 
Margaret  M'Lauchlan,  and  Margaret  Wilson. 


252 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


to  have  given  bond  for  her  appearance  before  the  ccruncil  on  the 
21st  of  April ; and  the  council,  at  their  meeting  on  that  day,  con- 
tinue her  liberty  upon  her  again  finding  security,  under  the  pen- 
alty contained  in  her  former  bond,  to  compear  before  his  majesty’s 
high  commissioner,  upon  the  last  Thursday  of  that  month. 
Whether  she  appeared  before  the  high  commissioner  on  the  day 
appointed,  it  is  not  said;  but  if  she  did,  she  does  not  appear  to 
have  given  him  the  satisfaction  which  he  required  ; for  the  coun- 
cil, at  their  meeting  of  the  30th  of  April,  “ gave  order  to  Patrick 
Graham,  captain  of  the  town  of  Edinburgh’s  company,  to  appre- 
hend her,  and  to  see  her  re-entered  prisoner  within  the  tolbooth 
of  Edinburgh.”*  This  is  the  last  notice  of  Lady  Colvill  which 
we  meet  with  in  the  records  of  the  privy  council.  Whether  the 
order  was  executed,  or  if  it  was,  how  long  she  continued  in  pris- 
on, we  have  not  been  able  to  ascertain. 

In  reviewing  these  notices  of  Lady  Colvill’s  history,  it  is 
pleasing  and  interesting  to  find  that  severe  as  was  the  treatment 
which  she  experienced,  it  had  no  effect  in  inducing  her  to  make 
any  unworthy  compliance  in  order  to  be  set  at  liberty,  or  in  order 
to  obtain  a relaxation  of  the  severity  of  her  imprisonment.  She 
repeatedly  petitioned  the  privy  council,  on  one  occasion,  for  a 
better  room ; on  another  for  a temporary  release,  on  account  of 
her  bodily  indisposition  ; on  another  for  a further  prorogation  of 
the  term  of  her  liberty  ; but  these  favors  she  never  asked  on  dis- 
honorable terms.  Rather  than  do  this,  she  was  .prepared  to  suf- 
fer the  slow  and  lingering  torture  of  a prison — a proof  how  well 
established  the  principles  of  her  faith  were,  and  that  she  pos- 
sessed no  small  degree  of  Christian  resolution.  This  is  the  more 
worthy  of  commendation,  when  the  weak  and  sickly  state  of 
body  to  which  she  was  reduced  is  considered.  But  whatever 
were  her  sufferings  at  the  hands  of  men,  the  reflection  that  these 
were  endured  in  the  cause  of  Christ — that  it  was  for  her  stead- 
fast adherence  to  him  that  she  was  denounced  a rebel,  intercom- 
muned,  maligned  as  a fanatic,  fined,  and  thrown  into  a dark  and 
unwholesome  prison,  would  yield  her  true  satisfaction.  She  was 
honored  to  suffer  for  Christ,  and  under  whatever  pretexts  she  was 
persecuted,  she  was,  doubtless,  in  the  sight  of  Him  who  judgeth 
righteous  judgment,  found  entitled  to  that  benediction  of  the  Sa- 
vior, “ Blessed  are  ye,  when  men  shall  revile  you,  and  persecute 
you,  and  shall  say  all  manner  of  evil  against  you  falsely  for  my 
sake.  Rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad  ; for  great  is  your  reward 
in  heaven  ; for  so  persecuted  they  the  prophets  which  were  be- 
fore you.” 


Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  CouncU. 


LADY  CAVERS. 


263 


CATHERINE  RIGG, 

LADY  CAVERS. 

Catherine  Rigg  was  the  eldest  daughter  of  Thomas  Rigg,  of 

Aihernie,  by  his  wife,  Margaret  Moneypenny,  daughter  of 

Moneypenny,  of  Pitmillie,  Esq.*  Her  ancestors,  on  the  father’s 
side,  were  distinguished  for  their  ardent  zeal  and  active  labors 
in  promoting  both  the  first  reformation  from  popery,  and  the  sec- 
ond reformation  from  prelacy.  Her  paternal  great-grandmother, 
Catherine  Row,  who  w^as  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  celebrated 
Dr.  John  Row,  minister  of  Perth,  and  the  able  coadjutor  of  our 
illustrious  reformer,  John  Knox,  is  described  by  Mr.  William 
Row,  minister  of  Ceres,  in  speaking  of  the  year  1587,  when  she 
could  not  have  been  more  than  between  twenty  and  thirty  years 
of  age,  as  “ one  of  the  most  religious  and  wise  matrons  then  in 
Edinburgh.”  Her  paternal  great-grandfather,  William  Rigg,  the 
husband  of  the  lady  now  mentioned,  was  a wealthy  merchant- 
burgess  in  Edinburgh,  and  a warm  supporter  of  the  Reformation, 
as  well  as  a man  of  much  moral  and  religious  worth. f Her  pa- 
ternal grandfather,  William  Rigg,  the  son  of  the  preceding,  and 
who,  like  his  father,  was  a merchant  in  Edinburgh,  was  a man 
of  eminent  piety,  uncommon  benevolence,  and  great  public  spirit. 
He  is  said  to  have  spent,  yearly,  not  less  than  eight  or  nine 
thousand  merks  (about  £350  sterling),  for  pious  purposes.^:  For 
his  opposition  to  the  introduction  of  the  Perth  articles  by  James 
YL,  he  was  fined  fifty  thousand  pounds  Scots,  and  ordered  to  be 
imprisoned  in  the  castle  of  Blackness  till  the  fine  was  paid.  He 
also  took  an  active  part  in  the  proceedings  of  the  covenanters 
against  the  court,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  He  was,  at  one  time, 
one  of  the  bailies  of  Edinburgh,  in  which  capacity,  Mr.  John  Liv- 
ingstone says,  he  gave  great  evidence  that  he  had  the  spirit  of 
a magistrate  beyond  many,  being  a terror  to  all  evil  doers.” 
Having  purchased  the  estate  of  Athernie,  in  Fife,  he  is  often 
called  in  the  annals  of  that  period,  William  Rigg,  of  Athernie. 

* Lamont’s  Diarj’’,  p.  115,  compared  with  Douglas’s  Baronage  of  Scotland,  p.  223. 

t Row’s  History  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  pp.  457,  469,  472. 

t He  inherited  considerable  property  from  his  father,  to  whom  he  was  retoured 
heir,  August  16,  1619,  in  various  lands  in  Fife,  Ross,  and  Cromai'ty,  and  in  a tene- 
ment of  land  in  the-  burgh  of  Elgin. — Inquis.  Retor.  Abbrev.  Fife,  No.  293  ; Ross 
and  Cromarty,  No.  52 ; Elgin  and  Forres,  No.  34,  He  was  also  very  successful  iu 
business. 


22 


254 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


He  died  on  the  2d  of  January,  1644.^  The  father  of  the  subject 
of  this  notice,  Thomas  Rigg,  was  the  eldest  son,  or  the  eldest 
surviving  son  of  the  preceding,  as  appears  from  his  having  been 
served  heir  to  him  in  his  extensive  heritable  property.!  Of  her 
father’s  life  we  know  much  less  than  of  her  grandfather’s ; nor 
have  we  discovered  the  exact  date  of  his  death ; but  it  must 
have  been  previous  to  the  year  1659,  as  her  mother  appears  in 
that  year  as  the  wife  of  the  celebrated  Sir  John  Scot,  of  Scots- 
tarvet,  who  had  been  twice  married  before,  and  who  died  in 
1670,  in  the  84th  year  of  his  age.J 

Of  the  early  life  of  this  lady  no  particulars  have  been  preserv- 
ed. In  March,  1659,  she  was  married  to  Sir  William  Douglas, 

* See  a notice  of  this  excellent  man  prefixed  to  one  of  Rutherford’s  Letters  to 
him;  Whyte  and  Kennedy’s  edition,  p.  216. 

t Thomas  Kigg  was  retoured  heir  to  his  father,  April  18,  1644,  in  various  tene- 
ments in  Edinburgh  ; in  the  lands  of  Manualrig,  Bowhouses,  and  Cromarland,  or 
Manual-Foulis,  in  Stirlingshire;  in  lands  in  Ross,  Cromarty,  and  Fife;  and  in  a 
tenement  within  the  burgh  of  Elgin. — Inquis  Retor.  Abbrev.  Edinburgh,  No.  920; 
Stirling,  No.  180;  Ross  and  Cromarty,  No.  93. 

$ Lamont’s  Diary,  p.  115.  Crawford,  in  his  Genealogical  Collections,  gives  the 
following  particulars  respecting  the  family  of  Rigg',  of  Athernie  : “ William  Rigg, 
bailie,  of  Athernie,  a very  good  religious  man,  and  an  excessive  rich  merchant,  pur- 
chased the  estate  of  Athernie,  in  Fife,  and  other  lands.  He  had  a son  by  his  wife, 
a Beatson,  of  the  hou.se  of  Balf  (Herald’s  Office),  and  Janet,  a daughter,  who  was 
married  to  Sir  Walter  Riddell,  of  that  ilk,  and  had  issue,  Sir  John,  and  Mr.  Archi- 
bald; another  daughter,  married  to  Mr.  John  Skene,  of  Halyards,  had  issue,  &c. 
Second.  [Thomas]  Rige^,  of  Athernie,  married  [Margaret]  Moneypenny,  daughter 

of Money penn}’  of  Pitmiilie,  by Myrton,  his  wife,  daughter  of Myrton, 

of  Cambo  (Ibid.),  had  a s ni  [William]  and  two  daughters.  Dame  Catherine  Rigg,  who 
was  married  to  Sir  William  Douglas,  of  Cavers ; and  [Margaret]  Rigg,  her  sister,  who 
was  married  to  George  Scot,  of  Pitlochie,  son  to  Sir  John  Scot,  of  Scotstarvet;  [both] 
had  issue.  His  lady,  Pitmillie’s  daughter,  was  the  third  wife  of  Sir  John  Scot,  ot 
Scotstarvet,  and  had  a son,  [Walter]  Scot,  to  whom  he  gave  Edenshead,  whose 
daughter  and  heir  was  married  to  Mr.  Charles  Erskine,  brother  to  the  earl  of 
Buchan.” — MS.  Folio,  in  Advocates’  Library.  William  Rigg,  of  Athernie,  the 
brother  of  Lady  Cavers,  bad  by  his  wife  a son,  William,  and  a daughter,  Euphan, 
who,  with  their  mother,  both  died  at  sea,  in  going  out  to  East  New  Jersey,  in 
America,  with  Mr.  George  Scot,  of  Pitlochie,  in  1685.  In  that  disastrous  voyage, 
about  seventy  died  by  a malignant  fever  which  broke  out  in  the  vessel,  and  the 
names  of  Lady  Athernie,  her  daughter  Euphan,  and  her  son  William,  appear  on  a 
list  of  those  who  thus  perished. — Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxxvi.,  4to.,  Nos.  65,  66  ; and 
vol.  xxxiii.,  folio,  No.  1 17.  In  the  commissary  records  of  Edinburgh,  24lh  November, 
1693,  there  is  registered,  *•  The  testament,  dative  and  inventar,  of  the  debts  pertain- 
ing to  umquhill  William  and  Euphan  Rigg,  lawful  children  to  the  deceased  Wil- 
liam Rigg,  of  Athernie,  sometime  residenters  in  Edinburgh,  who  deceased  at  sea, 

in  a voj'^age  to  East  Jersey,  in  the  month  of , 168 [5]  years,  faithfully  made  and 

given  up  by  William  and  Sarah  Rigg,  lawful  children  to  the  deceased  Mr.  Walter 
Rigg,  at  Athelstaneford,  and  Patrick  Hepburn,  writer  in  Edinburgh,  husband  to 
the  said  Sarah,  for  his  interest,  Walter,  Alexander,  and  Catharine  Rigg,  lawful 
children  to  the  deceased  James  Rigg,  merchant  burgess  of  Edinburgh,  only  exec- 
utors datives,  decerned  as  nearest  of  kin  to  the  said  defuncts,  by  decreet  of  the 
Commissars  of  Edinburgh,  as  the  same  of  the  date  of  the  third  day  of  May,  1693,  in  it- 
self at  more  lengthbears.”  Lady  Cavers’s  sister,  the  wife  of  Mr.  George  Scot,  of  Pit- 
lochie, also  died  by  the  fever  on  the  same  voyage. 


LADY  CAVERS. 


255 


of  Cavers,  younger.  The  circumstances  in  which  their  court- 
ship and  marriage  originated  are  thus  recorded  by  Crawford,  in 
his  Genealogical  Collections  : “ I have  heard  that  Sir  William 
Douglas  of  Cavers  applied  to  Sir  John  Scot,  of  Scotstarvet,  to 
have  borrowed  from  him  the  sum  of  50,000  merks,  that  he  want- 
ed to  pay  off  some  of  his  pressing  debts.  Sir  John  told  him 
that  he  could  not  do  it  himself  at  present ; but  there  was  a young 
gentlewoman  at  his  house  who  had  just  as  much  portion,  in 
ready  money,  as  he  wanted  to  borrow,  and  he  did  not  know  but 
both  the  lady  and  her  portion  might  be  at  his  service.  From 
this  hint  Sir  William  made  his  application  and  addresses  to  Miss 
Catherine  Rigg,  and  obtained  the  lady  in  marriage  soon  after 
that.”*  Crawford  adds,  ‘‘  A mighty  religious,  good  woman  she 
was  as  any  could  be  in  her  time.” 

Both  Lady  Cavers  and  Sir  William,  who  was  a man  of  prin- 
ciple, adhered  to  the  cause  of  the  ministers  ejected  in  1662  ;t 
by  which  they  excited  the  resentment  of  the  government.  For 
refusing  to  take  the  declaration  which  abjured  the  national  cove- 
nant, Sir  William  was  removed  from  his  office  of  sheriff  of  Te- 
viotdale,  in  which  he  stood  infefted.J  Fie  and  his  wife  also  suf- 
fered when,  on  their  children  having  so  far  advanced  in  years  as 
to  require  a tutor,  they  selected  one  from  among  the  students  or 
preachers  of  the  nonconformists.  To  intrust  the  education  of 
youth  in  schools,  in  colleges,  and  in  families  of  rank  exclusively 
to  such  as  conformed  to  prelacy,  formed  from  the  beginning,  as  we 
have  seen  before, ||  a leading  part  of  the  scheme  of  the  govern- 
ment for  establishing  prelacy.  And  to  enforce  the  laws  enacted, 
in  reference  to  this  matter,  a proclamation  was  issued  by  the 
privy  council,  on  the  1st  of  March,  1676,  forbidding  all  persons 
in  future  to  entertain  any  schoolmaster,  pedagogue,  or  chaplain, 
for  performance  of  family  worship,  who  had  not  license  to  that 
effect  under  the  hands  ojf  the  respective  bishops  of  their  diocese, 

* MS.  folio  in  Advocates’  Library. 

t Tbe  minister  of  Cavers,  Mr.  James  Gillon,  was  among  the  number  of  the  ejected 
ministers.  He  died  in  1688.  The  circumstances  connected  with  his  death  are  thus 
recorded  by  Kirkton  : “ Another  act  of  cruelty  they  [the  government]  committed 
at  this  time  [at  the  time  when  James  Mitchell  attempted  the  assassination  of  Arch- 
bishop Sharp],  was:  upon  pretence  of  searching  for  the  bishop’s  assassinat,  they 
seized  Mr.  James  Gillon,  late  minister  at  Cavers,  and  made  him  run  on  foot  from 
Currie  (whither  he  had  retired  for  his  health),  to  the  west  port  of  Edinburgh  at 
midnight,  and  then  [he]  was  carried  to  prison:  and  when  the  council  found  the  mis- 
take, they  did  indeed  suffer  him  to  go  to  his  chamber;  but  his  cruel  usage  disor- 
dered him  so  that  within  two  days  he  died.” — History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
p.  284. 

X Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council,  25th  July,  1684. 

11  See  Notice  of  Lady  Colvill,  pp.  247,  248. 


256 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


under  the  penalty  of  three  thousand  merks  to  be  exacted  for  each 
nobleman,  and  twelve  hundred  merks  for  each  gentleman,  and  six 
hundred  merks  for  a burgess  or  any  other  subject,  for  each  such 
offence,  as  they  should  be  found  guilty  in  the  premises.  But  the 
family  of  Cavers,  having,  in  disregard  of  this  proclamation,  kept 
with  them  Mr.  James  Osburn,  a presbyterian  student  or  preacher, 
as  tutor  to  their  children,  letters  v/ere  raised  at  the  instance  of 
Sir  John  Nisbet,  his  majesty’s  advocate,  charging  Sir  William 
with  having  “ ever  since  the  date  of  the  said  proclamation,  and 
contrary  to  the  duty  and  loyalty  incumbent  upon,  and  required  of 
good  subjects,  entertained,  reset,  and  countenanced  Mr.  James 
Osburn,  as  a schoolmaster,  or  pedagogue,  or  as  his  chaplain,  at 
the  least  for  performance  of  family  worship,  albeit  he  be  a per- 
son not  licensed  nor  authorized  under  the  hand  of  the  bishop  of  the 
diocese,  to  that  effect ; . . . whereby  the  said  Sir  William  Doug- 
las of  Cavers,  hath  directly  contravened  the  tenor  of  the  said  act 
of  parliament,  and  the  said  proclamation,  and  thereby  not  only 
incurred  the  pains  and  penalties  therein  contained,  but  ought  to 
exhibit  and  produce  to  his  majesty’s  privy  council  the  person  of 
the  said  Mr.  James  [Osburn].”  By  these  letters  he  w^s  charged 
to  compear  personally  before  the  privy  council  on  the  3d  of  Au- 
gust, 1676,  to  answer  to  the  foresaid  complaint,  and  to  hear  and 
see  such  order  taken  thereanent,  as  appertained,  under  pain  of  re- 
bellion, (fee.  Sir  William  not  having  appeared  at  the  bar  of  the 
council,  in  obedience  to  the  summons,  the  council  “ ordained  let- 
ters to  be  directed  to  messengers-at-arms,  to  denounce  him  his 
majesty’s  rebel,  and  put  him  to  the  horn,  and  to  escheat,  <fec.,  su- 
perseding extract  hereof,  as  to  the  said  Sir  William  Douglas, 
until  the  first  council  day  in  September  next.”* 

After  this.  Sir  William  had  not  long  to  live.  The  precise  date 
of  his  death  we  have  not  ascertained,  but  it  took  place  previous 
to  the  year  1680. 

It  is  in  the  beginning  of  that  year,  that  Lady  Cavers  appears 
upon  the  stage,  as  personally  obnoxious  to  the  government,  on 
account  of  her  nonconformity.  Being  now  left  a widow  with 
numerous  children,  she  felt  that  to  educate  them  in  the  principles 
of  religion  and  of  the  reformed  church  of  Scotland,  was  one  of 

* Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council.  Mr.  James  Osburn  is  included  in  tbe  let- 
ters raised  against  Sir  William  Douglas,  the  charge  against  him  being,  that  he  had 
most  unwarrantably  presumed  and  taken  upon  hand  to  serve  Sir  W illiam  as  a 
Bchoolmaster,  pedagogue,  or  chaplain,  for  family  worship,  although  he  was  not  li- 
censed or  authorized  to  that  effect  according  to  law  ; and  failing  to  appear  before 
the  council  on  the  3d  of  August,  he  was  declared  his  majesty’s  rebel,  but  nothing  is 
said  respecting  “ superseding  extract  hereof”  as  to  him. 


LADY  CAVERS. 


257 


the  most  important  duties  of  her  life,  or  rather  the  most  impor- 
tant duty  which  devolved  upon  her  as  a widowed  mother.  This 
appears  from  the  proceedings  instituted  against  her,  which  we 
are  now  about  to  narrate  ; and  from  which  it  will  be  seen  how 
anxious  the  government  and  its  supporters  were  to  prevent  the 
education  of  children,  and  especially  those  of  rank,  in  presbyterian 
principles.  It  appears  that  Thomas  Douglas,  brother  to  her  de- 
ceased husband.  Sir  William  Eliot  of  Stobes,  Mr.  Archibald 
Douglas,  minister  at  “ Seatoune,’'  [Salton  ?]  and  Mr.  Richard 
Douglas,  advocate,  had  been  nominated  and  appointed  tutors” 
to  William,  her  eldest'  son,  who  succeeded  his  father,  and  to 
Archibald  and  John,  his  brothers,  “ conform  to  a gift  of  tutorie 
granted  to  that  effect ; to  which  office  they  were  preferred  by  his 
majesty’s  exchequer,  upon  express  and  full  consideration  that 
the  complainers  would  be  careful,  not  only  of  the  said  minors’ 
persons  as  being  their  nearest  relations,  but  of  their  education  as 
peaceable,  loyal,  and  good  subjects,  and  which  was  thought  to  be 
of  considerable  consequence  to  his  majesty’s  service,  that  family 
having  a great  interest  in  the  shire  of  Roxburgh,  Avhere  they  live, 
and  considering  that  Dame  Catharine  Rigg,  Lady  Cavers,  their 
mother,  would  take  pains  to  withdraw  them  from  these  good  prin- 
ciples.” 

Lady  Cavers’  eldest  son,  William,  was  accordingly  taken  from 
her,  and  educated  for  several  years  at  school  in  Dalkeith  and 
Edinburgh.  But  William  having,  for  the  benefit  of  his  health, 
been  permitted  to  stay  at  his  own  house  with  his  mother  for 
some  time,  she  refused  to  allow  him  to  return  to  the  schools 
where  he  had  been  formerly  bred.  At  the  same  time,  she  re- 
fused to  deliver  up  to  the  tutors  her  other  two  sons,  Archibald  and 
John,  who  were  still  within  the  years  of  “ pupilarity,”  not  of 
course  because  she  was  hostile  to  their  receiving  a complete  ed- 
ucation and  every  accomplishment  suitable  to  their  station,  but 
because  she  wished  their  education  to  be  conducted  under  her 
own  eye  ; and  so  long  as  they  were  with  her,  she  did  not  fail  to 
instil  into  their  minds  the  principles  of  presbytery  and  of  the  cov- 
enant. This  gave  great  otfence  to  the  tutors,  and  letters  v/ere 
raised  against  her  at  their  instance,  to  compel  her  to  deliver  up 
to  them  her  children.  They  complain  that  “ she  wilfully  keeps 
them  that  she  may  give  them  those  disloyal  impressions  which 
may  prove  very  dangerous  to  that  family,  breeding  them  up  in  a 
perfect  aversion  to  the  government  of  church  and  state,  and  who 
are  already  arrived  at  that  wildness,  that  they  will  neither  fre- 
quent the  public  ordinances  themselves,  nor  converse  with  those 

22"* 


258 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


who  so  do  : and  therefore,”  they  add,  “ in  all  equity  and  justice 
the  said  Lady  Cavers  should  not  only  be  decerned  to  deliver  up 
to  the  complainers  the  persons  of  the  said  William,  Archibald, 
and  John  Douglas,  the  complainers’  pupils,  that  they  may  take 
care  for  their  education,  and  be  discharged  to  withdraw  or  de- 
tain them  from  schools  and  their  other  education,  but  also  pun- 
ished, to  the  terror  of  others  to  do  the  like  in  time  coming.”  She 
was  charged  to  compear  personally  before  the  privy  council  on 
the  2'7th  of  January,  1680,  to  answer  to  the  premises,  and  to  bring 
with  her,  exhibit,  and  produce  the  persons  of  her  three  sons 
abovenamed,  and  to  hear  and  see  herself  decerned  to  deliver 
them  up  to  their  tutors,  or  else  to  show  a reasonable  cause  to  the 
contrary ; and  further,  to  hear  and  see  such  other  order  taken  in 
the  foresaid  matter,  as  shall  appertain  under  the  pain  of  rebel- 
lion. In  obedience  to  the  summons,  she  compeared  personally 
before  the  council  to  defend  herself.  After  having  heard  and 
considered  the  libel  and  the  answers  made  thereto,  the  lords  of 
council  decerned  and  ordained  her  to  deliver  to  the  pursuers  the 
persons  of  the  said  Yv'illiam,  A^rchibald,  and  John  Douglas,  their 
pupils,  and  to  do  so  within  the  course  of  eight  days,  to  be  edu- 
cated as  they  should  order,  and,  if  need  be,  ordained  letters  of 
horning,  upon  a charge  of  six  days,  to  be  directed  for  that  effect.* 
Nearly  two  and  a half  years  after  this,  Lady  Cavers  was 
brought  to  still  greater  trouble,  on  account  of  her  presbyterian 
principles.  From  what  has  been  already  stated,  it  is  evident 
that  she  had  embraced  the  cause  for  which  the  ejected  ministers 
suffered  with  too  warm  a zeal  to  attend  the  curates.  But  this 
was  not  the  only  thing  which  rendered  her  obnoxious  to  the  per- 
secuting rulers  of  the  day.  She  had, besides,  attended  conventicles 
held  in  the  part  of  the  country  where  she  resided,  and  had  even 
permitted  them  to  be  held  in  her  own  house.  She  was,  more- 
over, in  the  habit  of  hospitably  entertaining  the  proscribed  min- 
isters who  happened  to  be  in  that  part  of  the  country,  and  she  had 
retained  as  her  servants  some  whom  the  government  had  de- 
nounced rebels.  The  strong  sympathy  and  support  thus  given, 
by  one  in  her  station,  to  the  cause  of  suffering  nonconformity,  did 
not  escape  the  notice  of  the  evil  instruments  of  the  government 
in  the  district  in  which  she  lived.  Among  those  who,  in  that 
district,  signalized  themselves  as  persecutors,  was  Adam  Urqu- 
hart,  the  laird  of  Meldrum,  who  was  made  a justice  of  the  peace 
in  Roxburghshire,  in  May,  1679,  to  assist  Flenry  Ker  of  Graden, 
sheriff-depute  of  that  county,  in  repressing  and  punishing  such 
^ Decreets  of  Privy  Council. 


LADY  CAVERS. 


259 


disorders  as  withdrawing  from  the  parish  churches  and  attend- 
ing conventicles  ; nor  did  these  men  want  spies  and  informers 
to  assist  them  in  this  work  of  oppression.  In  the  list  of  those 
whom  they  oppressed  on  account  of  religion,  Lady  Cavers  occu- 
pies a prominent  place.  Her  conduct  they  observed  with  eager 
scrutiny ; her  recusant  delinquencies  they  carefully  noted  down, 
and  transmitted  an  exaggerated  report  of  them  to  the  lords  of  the 
privy  council,  who  were  glad  to  find  an  occasion  against  her,  in 
the  hope  of  being  able  to  extort  from  her  a heavy  fine.  While 
living  peaceably  at  her  own  house,  attending  to  her  household 
and  maternal  duties,  she  was,  in  1682,  disturbed  by  the  harsh 
intrusion  of  the  rugged  messengers  of  the  law,  with  letters  raised 
against  her,  at  the  instance  of  Sir  George  Mackenzie,  his  majes- 
ty’s advocate.  In  these  letters  she  is  charged  with  ‘‘  keeping 
and  being  present  at  conventicles,  harboring,  resetting,  entertain- 
ing, intercommuning,  and  corresponding,  with  declared  rebels 
and  traitors,  and  disorderly  and  irregular  persons.” 

After  stating  that,  by  the  laws  and  acts  of  parliament  of  this 
realm,  these  were  “ crimes  of  a high  nature,  and  severely  pun- 
ishable,” the  letters,  which  contain  a mixture  of  truth  and  false- 
hood, proceed  as  follows  : “ Nevertheless  it  is  of  verity  that  upon 
the  first,  second,  third,  and  remanent  days  of  the  months  of  Au- 
gust, September,  October,  November,  and  December,  1679,  upon 
the  first,  second,  third,  and  remanent  days  of  the  months  of  Jan- 
uary, February,  March,  and  remanent  months  of  the  years  1680 
and  1681,  and  upon  the  first,  second,  third,  and  remanent  days 
of  the  months  of  January,  February,  March,  April,  and  May  last, 
or  oije  or  other  of  the  days  of  the  months  of  the  said  years.  Dame 
Catharine  Figg,  Lady  Cavers,  having  been  present  at  divers 
conventicles  in  the  shires  of  Roxburgh  and  Selkirk,  and  several 
other  places,  where  she  hath  heard  Mr.  Matthew  Selkirk,  a va- 
grant preacher,  Mr.  Donald  Cargill,  and  Mr.  Gabriel  Semple, 
declared  traitors,  Mr.  Thomas  Douglas,  Mr.  Samuel  Arnot,  Mr. 
Archibald  Riddell,  and  Mr.  James  Osburn,  preach,  expound  scrip- 
ture, pray,  and  exercise  the  other  functions  of  the  ministry,*  and, 
in  the  said  seditious  meetings,  vent  several  malicious  and  wicked 
expressions  against  his  majesty’s  government ; and  particularly 

* Field  conventicles  were  frequently  held  in  those  days  in  the  parish  of  Cavers. 
The  hollow  dells  and  rocky  recesses  of  the  hill  Rubberslaw,  which  is  situated  in 
the  lower  division  of  the  parish,  were  the  haunts  of  the  persecuted  covenanters,  and 
not  only  the  place,  but  the  very  stone,  on  which  the  volume  of  God’s  word  was 
laid  when  the  celebrated  Alexander  Peden  declared  its  truths  to  a large  congrega- 
tion there  assembled,  is  still  pointed  out. — New  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland^ 
parisli  of  Cavers. 


260 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


in  the  month  of  November,  1680,  the  laird  of  Meldrum  having 
gone  to  the  said  shire,  in  pursuance  of  his  majesty’s  commands, 
for  putting  the  laws  in  execution  against  disorderly  persons,  true 
it  is  that  the  said  Lady  Cavers,  to  evidence  her  zeal  and  forward- 
ness against  the  putting  of  his  majesty’s  laws  in  execution,  and 
so  encourage  disorderly  persons  in  their  irregular  practices,  did, 
upon  the  first,  second,  third,  or  one  or  other  of  the  days  of  the 
said  month  of  November,  1680,  cause,  advertise,  and  convocate 
diverse  numbers  of  people,  at  her  house  of , keeping  a se- 

ditious conventicle  ; and  accordingly  there  did  convene  above 
the  number  of  three  hundred  persons,  whereof  some  were  within 
and  some  were  without  doors  (which,  by  the  law,  is  declared  to 
be  a field  conventicle),  at  which  seditious  meeting  the  said  Mr. 
Matthew  Selkirk,  or  one  or  other  of  the  foresaid  persons,  traitors, 
vagrants,  disorderly  ministers,  did  intimate  a fast  to  be  kept,  at  the 

said  house,  upon  the day  of  the  said  month  of  November, 

for  Philiphaugh’s  good  success  against  the  laird  of  Meldrum  ;* 
which  was  accordingly  performed,  where  the  said  Mr.  Matthew 
Selkirk  preached,  and  at  which  there  were  present  aboye  two 
hundred  persons,  and  many  of  them  without  doors.  Likeas  the 
said  Lady  Cavers,  during  the  foresaid  space,  hath  constantly  enter- 
tained and  harbored,  reset  and  intercommuned  with  the  foresaid 
traitors,  rebels,  and  vagrant  preachers,  as  also  Thomas  Turnbull 
of  Stonehill,  John  Climie,  barber  in  Hawick,  and  divers  other 
seditious  and  disorderly  persons,  and  hath  furnished  them  with 
meat,  house,  and  harbor,  by  herself  and  tenants  ; as  also  Robert 
Davidson,  a declared  rebel  and  fugitive,  as  her  gardener  : whereby 
the  said  Dame  Catharine  Rigg  is  guilty  of  the -.iflanifest  crimes 
above  written,  and  hath  contravened  the  laws  and  acts  of  parlia- 
ment made  thereagainst,  for  which  she  ought  to  be  severely  pun- 
ished in  her  person  and  goods,  to  the  terror  of  others  to  commit 
and  do  the  like  in  time  coming.”! 

The  laird  of  Meldrum,  one  of  the  most  active  persecutors,  had  imposed  heavy 
fines  on  many  gentlemen  and  tenants  in  the  shire  of  Teviotdale,  and  committed  to 
prison  such  as  did  not  pay' their  fines.  It  was  calculated  that  he  had  uplifted  in 
fines  from  that  shire  not  less  than  ten  thousand  pounds.  This,  as  might  have  been 
expected,  created  great  dissatisfaction.  James  Murray  of  Philiphaugh,  principal 
sheriff  of  Selkirk,  William  Murray,  his  depute,  and  some  gentlemen  and  tenants, 
brought  a libel  against  him  before  the  privy  council,  in  November,  1680,  complain- 
ing of  his  many  oppressions  and  wrongous  imprisonments.  “Philiphaugh,”  says 
Wodrow,  “ proved  his  libel  against  Meldrum,  to  the  conviction  of  all,  and  answered 
what  Meldrum  charged  him  with  ; and  when  Meldrum  offered  to  give  in  some  new 
queries,  he  was  willing  to  admit  them,  providing  he  should  be  allowed  to  begin 
witfi  new  queries  to  him,  and  proposed  he  might  be  interrogate  whether  Meldrum 
was  papist  or  protestant ; when  he  was  last  at  mass  ; who  were  present  with  him 
when  he  had  conversed  last  with  rebels,  and  what  compositions  he  had  made  with 
them.” — Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  240;  Decreets  of  Privy  Council,  21st  July, 
1681.  This  is  the  case  referred  to  in  the  text.  t Decreets  cf  Privy  Council. 


LADY  CAVERS. 


261 


To  answer  to  the  foresaid  complaint,  and  to  hear  and  see  such 
order  taken  thereanent  as  appertained,  she  is  charged  to  compear 
personally  before  the  council  on  the  4th  of  July,  1682,  under  the 
pain  of  rebellion. 

Her  case  came  before  the  council,  at  their  meeting  on  the  4th 
of  July.  But  she  disobeyed  the  summons  ; and,  on  her  being 
ofttimes  called  and  not  compearing,  the  council  granted  ‘‘  certifi- 
cation against  her,  ordaining  her  to  be  denounced  his  majesty’s 
rebel.”  Afterward,  however,  upon  application  to  the  council, 
she  was  reponed  against  the  said  certification,  upon  her  finding 
caution  to  compear  before  the  council  on  the  13th  day  of  Novem- 
ber instant.”  On  that  day,  the  council  having  met,  and  her  case 
being  again  called,  she  compeared,  with  a procurator  to  plead  in 
her  defence.  Her  libel  was  read,  and  answers  were  made  to  it 
by  her  procurator,  in  the  presence  of  the  council.  But,  not  sat- 
isfied with  these  answers,  the  lords  of  council  ordered  her  to  be 
brought  before  them.  On  her  making  her  appearance,  his  majes- 
ty’s advocate  “ referred  the  truth  of  the  libel  to  her  oath,  and  de- 
clared that,  conformably  to  his  majesty’s  letter,  and  the  constant 
practice  of  the  council,  he  restricted  those  points  of  the  libel  in 
their  own  nature  criminal,  to  an  arbitrary  punishment,  and  de- 
clared that  any  confession  to  be  made  by  her  should  not  be  any 
ground  of  a criminal  process  against  her.”  But  she  refused  to 
give  her  oath.  The  ground  upon  which  she  was  required  to  depone 
upon  oath  was  the  second  act  of  the  parliament  of  1670;*  and 
the  king’s  letter  in  1674,  just  now  referred  to,  restricted  the  pun- 
ishment, in  the  case  of  such  as  confessed  their  nonconforming  de- 
linquencies, to  an  arbitrary  fine.  It  was  the  opinion  of  Sir  George 
Lockhart,  an  eminent  lawyer  of  that  day,  delivered  in  a case  ex- 
actly similar,  that  the  above  act  of  parliament,  though  it  might 
compel  her  to  depone  against  others,  could  not  compel  her  to 
depone  against  herself ; and  that  “ she  behooved  first  to  have  a 
remission  passed  the  seals,  and  the  king’s  letter  was  not  equiva- 
lent thereto.”!  But  the  privy  council  took  a different  view  of  the 

* See  this  act  in  Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  167. 

t The  case  in  which  Sir  George  Lockhart  delivered  this  opinion  was  that  of  Ed- 
miston  of  Duntraith,  who,  on  the  30lh  of  June,  1681,  was  fined  in  nine  thousand 
merks,  and  sentenced  to  lie  in  prison  till  it  was  paid,  for  refusing  to  depone  with 
respect  to  his  conversing  and  intercommuning  with  a denounced  fugitive  minister, 
with  respect  to  his  having  been  at  field  conventicles,  and  with  respect  to  his  calling 
the  proceedings  of  the  privy  council  arbitrary  and  tyrannical ; on  all  which  points  he 
was  urged  to  depone,  both  from  the  second  act  of  the  parliament  of  1670,  and  from 
the  king’s  letter  in  1674.  Sir  George  Lockhart  employed  in  defence  of  his  client 
the  argument  stated  in  the  text.  But  it  was  repelled,  and  Edmiston  was  holden 
as  confessed  for  not  deponing,  and  fined. — Fountainhall’s  Historical  Notices,  vol.  i., 
page  301. 


262 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


matter.  Upon  her  refusal  to  give  her  oath,  “ the  lords  of  council, 
considering  that  the  crimes  libelled  were  of  a very  high  nature, 
and  that,  in  construction  of  law,  she,  by  reason  of  her  refusing  to 
depone,  was  understood  to  be  guilty  of  the  whole  crimes  libelled, 
did  therefore  fine  her  in  the  sum  of  nine  thousand  merks  Scots 
money,  and  ordained  her  to  be  carried  to  prison  until  she  should 
have  made  payment,  or  found  caution  to  pay  the  same,  to  his 
majesty’s  cash-keeper,  and  found  caution  for  her  future  good  be- 
havior. But  if  her  former  cautioner  obliged  himself,  under  the 
penalty  of  one  thousand  pounds  sterling,  to  produce  her  upon 
Thursday  next,  the  16th  of  November,  before  the  council,  the 
lords  allowed  her  to  stay  out  of  prison  till  that  day.”*  Having 
found  this  security,  she  was  in  the  meantime  set  at  liberty.  On 
the  16th  of  November,  her  surety,  “ conform  to  his  bond,  pro- 
duced her  at  the  council  bar  but  she  having  neither  ‘‘  made  pay- 
ment of  the  fine  imposed  upon  her  last  council-day,  nor  given 
bond  for  her  future  good  behavior,  the  lords  of  council  ordained 
her  to  be  committed  prisoner  to  the  tolbooth  of  Edinburgh  until 
Monday  next,  and  recommended  to  General  Dalziel,  the  said 
day,  to  cause  transport  her  from  the  said  tolbooth  of  Edinburgh 
to  the  castle  of  Stirling,  by  a party,  and  appointed  the  governor 
of  the  said  castle  of  Stirling,  or  his  deputy,  to  receive,  keep,  and 
detain  her  person  in  sure  firmance,  until  further  order  from  the 
council.”! 

This  order  was  duly  executed ; and  she  continued  in  prison 
till  the  close  of  the  year  1684,  with  the  exception  of  a fev/  weeks’ 
liberty  granted  her  for  the  benefit  of  her  health.  “ Her  case  was 
indeed  very  hard,”  says  Wodrow,  “ to  say  nothing  of  her  shining 
virtue  and  singular  piety,  and  her  being  chargeable  with  nothing 
but  simple  nonconformity  with  prelacy,  and  no  ways  concerned 
in  anything  against  the  government,  nor  could  once  be  supposed 
to  be.”| 

How  she  and  her  children  were  maintained  during  the  period 
of  her  imprisonment,  we  are  not  informed.  She  had  a Jointure 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  sterling,  from  the  rental  of  the 
estate  of  her  deceased  husband,  for  the  support  of  herself  and  her 
five  younger  children,  but  of  this  she  was  deprived,  the  rents  of 
her  tenants  being  arrested  for  the  payment  of  her  exorbitant  fine, 
which  was  more  than  her  income  from  her  jointure  amounted  to 
for  three  years  ; and  her  close  imprisonment  put  it  wholly  out  of 
her  power  to  procure  subsistence  for  herself  and  her  children  by 
her  own  exertions.  The  circumstances  connected  with  the  ar- 
**  Decreets  of  Privy  Council.  t Ibid.  t Wodrow’s  History,  vql.  iv.,  p.  54. 


LADY  CAVERS. 


263 


restment  of  her  tenants’  rents  are  worthy  of  particular  notice, 
affording,  as  they  do,  an  example  of  the  severe  treatment  which 
tenants  who  favored  suffering  heritors  generally  met  with  at  the 
hands  of  the  ordinary  magistrates,  and  in  which  the  magistrates 
were  encouraged  and  supported  by  the  government. 

The  instrument  of  arrestment  was  served  upon  her  tenants  on 
the  10th  of  February,  1683,  at  the  instance  of  Hugh  Wallace,  his 
majesty’s  cash-keeper,  arresting  all  rents  then  due  by  them  to 
her,  till  the  payment  of  her  fine.  This  was  severe  enough,  but 
it  was  only  a part  of  the  hardships  to  which,  on  account  of  her 
fine,  they  were  subjected.  As  they  had  no  tacks,  but  were  move- 
able  tenants,  taking  their  lands  every  successive  year  in  April, 
they  supposed,  as  was  very  reasonable,  that  that  arrestment  could 
only  make  thenf  liable  for  what  they  owed  Lady  Cavers  at  the 
time  of  its  being  served  upon  them,  and  not  for  the  rent  of  the 
new  year  commencing  in  April,  1683,  when  they  took  their  lands 
anew.  Accordingly,  when  the  first  term  for  the  payment  of  the 
first  half  of  that  new  year’s  rent,  which  was  Martinmas,  arrived. 
Lady  Cavers  having  called  upon  the  tenants  for  the  payment, 
they  paid  her  about  eleven  hundred  pounds,  which  amounted  to 
about  the  half  of  that  year’s  rent ; and  for  this  she  granted  them 
discharges.  But  to  their  surprise,  they  were  summoned,  in  the 
beginning  of  January,  1684,  to  appear  before  the  sheriff  of  Rox- 
burghshire, on  the  8th  of  that  month,  for  the  payment  not  only  of 
what  was  due  by  them  at  the  time  of  the  arrestment,  but  also  for 
the  whole  of  the  rent  of  the  year  commencing  in  April,  1683,  the 
procurator  for  the  pursuers  urging,  that  the  arrestment  served  upon 
the  tenants  put  them  in  mala  fide  to  pay  any  rent  to  her  till  her 
fine  was  fully  paid.  The  tenants  pleaded  in  their  own  defence, 
that  the  arrestment  of  February  10th,  according  to  the  nature  of 
all  arrestments,  could  only  secure  what  was  then  due  by  them  to 
Lady  Cavers  ; that  not  having  taken  their  lands  till  April  there- 
after, they  could  not  be  supposed,  at  the  time  of  the  arrestment, 
to  be  debtors  to  her  for  the  new  year  commencing  in  April ; and 
that  as  no  new  arrestment  had  ever  been  served  upon  them  to  put 
them  in  condition  to  refuse  the  payment  of  their  half-year’s  rent 
to  her  at  Martinmas,  they  ought  not  to  be  required  to  pay  it  again. 
This  was  thought  the  only  equitable  view  of  the  matter  by  all  who 
heard  of  it,  and  the  sheriff  delayed  to  pronounce  either  interlo- 
cutor or  decreet  in  the  case  till  he  had  advised  with  his  lawyers. 
But  Meldrum’s  power  with  the  sheriff  so  prevailed,  that,  on  the 
18th  of  January  that  same  year,  he  pronounced  a decreet  against 
the  tenants,  for  the  payment  not  only  of  what  was  due  by  them  at 


264 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


the  time  of  the  arrestment,  but  also  for  the  payment  of  the  rent 
of  the  subsequent  year,  commencing  in  April,  1683;  and  this 
decreet  was  pronounced  against  them  without  their  ever  having 
been  summoned  to  hear  and  see  either  interlocutor  or  decreet  and 
sentence  pronounced  against  them,  which  was  contrary  to  the 
form  always  observed  by  that  court  when  a process  was  taken  up 
to  be  considered. 

In  these  circumstances  the  tenants  sent  a petition  to  the  privy 
council  in  the  beginning  of  April,  1684,  with  a paper  entitled, 
“ Information  for  Lady  Cavers’  Tenants,”  both  which  documents 
contain  the  facts  now  stated.*  The  petition  concludes  with  these 
words:  “The  which  sentence  [the  sentence  of  the  sheriff],  if 
it  shall  be  executed  against  us,  and  we  thereby  distressed  to  make 
double  payment,  will  not  only  for  ever  incapacitate  us  for  paying 
any  more  rent,  but  bring  us  and  our  poor  families  to  a starving 
condition  ; for  all  our  goods  consist  of  a few  nowtef  and  sheep, 
which,  through  this  stormy  winter  that  lay  very  heavy  upon  our 
grounds,  are  now  reduced  to  a very  small  number ; and  if  they 
shall  be  poinded  and  driven  from  us,  there  will  be  nothing  re- 
maining for  us  but  what  we  can  have  by  begging  our  bread  in  the 
country.  May  it  therefore  please  your  lordships  to  pity  our  sad 
and  distressed  condition,  that  we  may  not  be  altogether  broken 
and  ruined,  and  to  discharge  that  decreet  to  be  put  in  execution 
against  us  your  humble  supplicants,  till  your  lordships  examine 
the  matter,  and  hear  the  business  before  yourselves ; and  your 
poor  petitioners  shall  ever  pray  for  a long  and  happy  reign  to  his 
majesty,  and  health  and  prosperity  to  your  lordships.” 

Reasonable  as  is  the  prayer  of  this  petition,  it  was  rejected.]: 
By  virtue  of  the  sentence  of  the  sheriff,  letters  of  horning  were 
raised  against  the  tenants,  and  so  severe  were  the  proceedings 
against  them,  that  about  the  middle  of  May,  all  of  them  were 
apprehended  and  carried  by  a party  of  Meldrum’s  troops  to  the 
tolbooth  of  Jedburgh.  They  were  indeed  soon  after  liberated, 
but  it  was  only  to  go  home  for  the  better  making  up  of  the  money 
which  they  were  required  to  pay.|l  “ I find,”  says  Wodrow, 
“ they  were  so  discouraged  by  the  finings  and  harassings  they 
were  put  to,  that,  had  not  the  laird  of  Cavers  returned  that  year, 
and  got  the  prosecution  stopped,  they  had  all  left  the  ground. 

To  return  to  Lady  Cavers  : when  she  had  been  confined  in 

* Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxxiii.,  Nos.  66,  67.  Wodrow’s  Hist,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  54,  55. 

t That  is,  cattle.  t Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  55. 

II  Letter  of  Mr.  Gladstanes  to  Sir  William  Douglas,  dated  24th  May,  1684.  Wod- 
row MSS.,  vol.  XXX.,  4to.,  No.  114. 

J Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  55, 


LADY  CAVERS. 


265 


Stirling  castle  about  eight  months,  she  was  induced,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  declining  state  of  hef  health,  to  present  a petition 
to  the  privy  council,  supported  by  the  testimonial  of  a physician, 
praying  for  liberty  to  go  for  some  time  to  the  wells  in  England. 
In  answer  to  her  petition,  the  council,  at  their  meeting  on  the 
19th  of  July,  1683,  “allow  her  from  that  date  to  the  15th  of 
October,  to  go  to  the  wells  for  her  health,  and  give  order  and 
warrant  to  the  governor  or  deputy-governor  of  the  castle  of  Stir- 
ling, to  set  her  at  liberty,  to  that  effect,  in  regard  she  hath  found 
sufficient  caution  acted  in  the  books  of  privy  council,  that  at  or 
betwixt  the  said  15th  day  of  October,  she  shall  re-enter  her  per- 
son in  prison,  within  the  said  castle  of  Stirling,  under  the  penalty 
of  500/.  sterling,  and  that  during  the  time  of  her  being  at  liberty, 
and  in  this  kingdom,  she  shall  live  orderly  under  the  same  penalty 
in  case  of  failure.”* 

At  this  time.  Lady  Cavers’  eldest  son.  Sir  William  Douglas, 
was  travelling  on  the  continent,  accompanied  by  his  tutor,  Mr. 
Robert  Wylie,  who,  after  the  revolution,  became  minister  of  Ham- 
ilton. In  her  present  circumstances,  and  especially  as  she  was 
not  without  fears  that  though  a settlement  were  made  for  her  fine, 
this  would  not  terminate  her  sufferings  for  nonconformity,  she 
was  naturally  anxious  for  the  return  of  her  son,  hoping  that  it 
might  be  in  his  power  to  procure  her  liberation  from  prison,  and 
to  protect  her  from  future  hardships.  Mr.  Gladstanes,  his  factor, 
in  a letter  to  Sir  William,  dated  Edinburgh,  October  2,  1683, 
says  : “It  is  thought  by  many,  when  they  see  how  severely  others 
are  handled  for  reset  and  converse,  that  albeit  there  were  some 
settlement  made  for  this  fine  for  which  she  [your  mother]  is  now 
imprisoned,  her  trouble  shall  not  end  there,  and  whereof  being 
now  apprehensive,  she  is  the  more  desirous  to  see  you  here 
before  any  new  trial ; and  if  your  coming  home  could  contribute 
anything  to  her  liberation,  I do  not  doubt  but  you  have  already 
resolved  that  everything  else  shall  give  place  to  so  natural  a 
duty.”! 

To  have  obtained  her  liberty  through  the  interposition  of  her 
son,  whom  she  loved  so  tenderly,  would  doubtless  have  been 
highly  gratifying  to  Lady  Cavers  ; but  the  assurance  that  he  was 
living  a god-fearing  and  virtuous  life,  would  have  still  more 
gladdened  her  heart,  whereas  her  hearing  of  or  witnessing  his 
living  a life  of  an  opposite  description,  would  have  been  to  her 
a source  of  more  poagn^int  distress  than  all  she  had  hitherto  suf- 
fered or  might  yet  suffer  on  account  of  her  religious  principles. 

• Decreets  of  Privy  Council.  t Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxx.,  4to.,  No.  113. 

23 


266 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


As  an  instance  of  this  pious  solicitude  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
her  children,  we  may  quote  the  following  passage  from  the  same 
letter : “ I doubt  not,”  says  Mr.  Gladstanes,  “ but  you  have  al- 
ready heard  of  the  little  liberty  granted  to  your  mother  for  going 
to  a well  for  her  health,  and  that  she  is  to  return  to  her  prison 
before  the  16th  of  this  month.  I saw  her  here  very  much  afflicted 
for  some  expressions  of  a letter  that  you  had  written  to  your 
uncle,  and  which  she  takes  more  heavily  than  all  the  trouble 
which  she  hath  met  with  herself,  or  whereof  she  is  yet  in  hazard. 
I know  not  how  it  is,  but  I am  very  sure  you  would  not  willingly 
write  or  do  anything  to  the  increasing  of  her  sorrows.  It  is  like 
she  may  be  afraid  lest  French  liberties  should  spoil  a good 
Christian  education.”*  In  the  same  letter  he  says  : “ Your 
uncle  Letholme  went  south  eight  days  ago  to  the  drawing  of 
your  tithes,  and  we  expect  both  him  and  your  mother  here  some 
time  this  week.” 

Before  the  time  appointed  for  Lady  Cavers  returning  to  prison 
in  Stirling  castle  arrived,  a petition  was  presented  to  a committee 
of  the  privy  council  praying  for  the  extension  of  the  period  of 
her  liberty,  but  the  prayer  was  refused.  She  accordingly  again 
became  a prisoner.  Being,  however,  permitted  to  take  her  chil- 
dren to  Stirling,  where  they  were  to  attend  the  school,  and  where 
she  would  probably  have  frequent  opportunities  of  seeing  them, 
this  would  in  some  degree  alleviate  the  hardships  of  her  confine- 
ment. Mr.  Gladstanes,  in  a letter  to  Sir  William,  who  was  then 
at  Paris,  dated  October  23,  1683,  thus  writes:  “Your  mother 
went  from  this  on  Saturday  was  eight  days,  to  re-enter  her  prison 
in  Stirling  castle.  There  was  an  address  made  to  a committee 
of  the  council  before  she  went  away,  for  continuing  her  liberty. 
Most  of  them  inclined  to  favor  her  bill,  but  did  not  think  their 
power  full  enough  for  granting  it,  till  a more  numerous  meeting 
of  the  haill  council,  which  is  not  to  be  till  the  8th  of  November. 
Archibald  and  John  went  west  with  her  to  Stirling  school ; James 
and  Tom  were  left  at  Cavers  till  Jamie  recovered  of  a little  dis-, 
temper,  whereof  now  I hear  he  is  grown  better.  Your  sister 
was  left  here  till  your  mother  considered  whether  it. were  better 
to  put  her  to  a school  here,  or  take  her  west  with  a wgman  to 
teach  her  there. ”t 

From  the  mitigated  tone  in  which  the  committee  of  the  privy 
council  expressed  themselves  regarding  Lady  Cavers,  one  would 
be  prepared  to  anticipate  that  at  the  meeting  of  council  on  the 

^ Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxx.,  4to,  No.  113L 

t Ibid.  The  letter  is  addressed  on  the  back,  “ For  the  laird  of  Cavers  Douglas.” 


LADY  CAVERS. 


267 


8th  of  November,  the  period  of  her  temporary  liberty  would  he 
prolonged.  But  such  was  not  the  case.  She  continued  lying 
in  prison  for  more  than  a year  longer.  Depressed,  though  not 
subdued,  by  long  and  close  confinement,  by  the  impoverished  cir- 
cumstances of  herself  and  her  children,  and  by  the  weak  state 
of  health  to  which  she  was  reduced,  she  presented  a petition  to 
the  privy  council,  praying  them  to  remit  her  fine,  or  favorably  to 
represent  her  case  to  his  majesty,  or  to  allow  her  to  obtain  her 
jointure  for  the  support  of  herself  and  her  children.  The  petition 
is  as  follows  - 

“ Unto  the  Right  Honorable  the  Lords,  of  his  Majesty’s  Most  Hon- 
orable Privy  Council — The  Petition  of  the  Lady  Cavers, 
Humbly  Showeth, 

“ That  whereas  by  your  lordships’  sentence  upon  the  [13th] 
day  of  November,  1682,  she  was  fined  in  five  hundred  pounds 
sterling,  and  committed  prisoner  to  the  castle  of  Stirling  until  the 
same  were  paid,  she  does  now  with  all  humility  represent  to 
your  lordships,  that  the  said  decreet  was  founded  singly  upon  her 
declining  to  give  her  oath  upon  the  points  of  the  libel,  which  she 
did  not  out  of  any  contumacy,  but  from  a tenderness  she  hath 
ever  naturally  had  of  giving  an  oath  in  any  case,  but  will  not 
decline  the  most  exact  and  most  strict  trial  in  the  matters  of  which 
she  was  accused ; and  is  so  conscious  of  her  own  innocence, 
that  she  doubts  not  but  upon  such  trial  it  will  appear  that  she  was 
misrepresented  to  your  lordships  by  misinformations,  proceeding 
either  of  malice  or  mistake,  to  which  she  is  the  more  exposed, 
being  a person  living  abstract  from  all  company,  employing  her 
time  in  the  education  .of  her  numerous  fatherless  children  ; and 
she  further  humbly  represents  to  your  lordships  the  meanness 
and  smallness  of  her  estate,  which  consists  only  of  a jointure  not 
exceeding  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  sterling  a year  ; that  she 
is  in  debt-,  and  stands  bound  by  an  old  settlement  with  her  chil- 
dren’s friends,  to  aliment  her  younger  children,  whereof  there  are 
five  : by  which  it  is  more  than  evident  to  your  lordships,  that  un- 
less your  lordships  be  favorably  pleased  to  grant  her  relief  from 
the  said  fine,  she  and  her  poor  fatherless  children  (who  are  the 
issue  of  a family  who  for  many  ages  have  served  their  king  and 
country  faithfully  and  honorably)  will  be  reduced,  not  only  to 
ruin,  but  downright  starvation.  She  hath  also  suffered  a long 
and  tedious  imprisonment,  by  which  both  her  health  and  estate 
are  exceedingly  impaired,  and  is  firmly  resolved  in  all  time  com- 
ing to  live  inoffensively  to  the  whole  world,  educating  her  chil- 


268 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


dren,  and  enjoying  herself  in  her  recluse  and  desolate  condition, 
without  meddling  with  any  persons  or  affairs  in  the  world. 

‘‘  May  it  therefore  please  your  lordships  to  take  the  premises 
into  your  serious  consideration,  and,  in  compassion  to  the  widow 
and  fatherless,  remit  her  and  them  the  said  fine  ; or  (if  your  lord- 
ships  think  it  necessary)  that  you  will  be  pleased  favorably  to 
represent  their  sad  and  deplorable  condition  to  his  sacred  majes- 
ty, from  whose  innate  justice,  and  gracious  goodness,  and  clemen- 
cy, she  submissively  hopes  for  the  granting  of  this  her  humble 
desire  ; and,  in  the  meantime,  that  your  lordships,  in  your  great 
goodness,  will  be  pleased  to  permit  her  to  intromit  with  her  joint- 
ure for  alimenting  her  poor  five  fatherless  children,  which  it  will 
hardly  suffice  to  do  in  respect  of  the  meanness  of  it,  and  of  the 
debt  with  which  it  stands  already  affected.  And  your  petitioner 
shall  ever  pray,”  &c.* 

Affecting  as  is  this  petition,  it  seems  to  have  been  disregarded 
by  the  lords  of  the  privy  council,  who,  actuated  by  a hard-hearted 
avarice,  would  neither  remit  nor  mitigate  her  fine.  Her  son  hav- 
ing, about  this  time,  returned  to  London  from  his  travels  on  the 
continent,!  she  and  her  friends  cherished  the  hope  that  by  his 
intercessions  with  some  of  the  leading  statesmen  in  London,  the 
government  might  be  prevailed  upon  to  set  her  at  liberty,  and  to 
remit  her  fine.  Mr.  Gladstanes,  his  factor,  who  appears  to  have 
sympathized  deeply  in  her  case,  in  a letter  to  him,  dated  “ Cavers, 
May  24,  1684,”  informs  him  of  her  circumstances,  and  strongly 
incites  him  to  exert  himself  at  London,  to  the  utmost  of  his  pow- 
er, to  obtain  for  his  mother  relief.  I am  very  glad,”  says  he, 

“ to  hear  of  your  safe  return  to  London I heard  from 

your  mother  the  last  week,  with  some  of  her  tenants  that  had 

Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxxiii.,  folio,  No.  69.  Wodrow,  in  the  Table  of  Contents, 
refers  the  petition  to  the  year  1684. 

t Sir  William  had  been,  some  time  previous  to  his  return,  married  to  a French 
lady,  w’ith  -whom  he  had  fallen  in  love  in  his  travels.  But  when  he  intended  to  re- 
turn home,  obstacles  were  interposed  in  the  way  of  his  wife  and  child  returning 
with  him.  He  was  not  personally  restrained,  but  his  wife  and  the  child,  which,  in 
consequence  of  its  mother  being  a Frenchwoman,  was  considered  as  naturalized, 
were  declared  to  be  subjects  of  France,  and,  according  to  the  tenth  article  of  the 
edict  of  Nantes  (which  received  the  royal  signature  on  the  8th  of  October,  1685), 
were  prohibited  from  departing  out  of  the  realm.  Sir  William  Turnbull,  the  Eng- 
lish embassador  in  France,  in  a letter  to  Lord  Sutherland,  dated  December  19. 1685, 
thus  writes  : “I  acquainted  him  [that  is,  Louis  XIV.]  also  with  Sir  William  Doug- 
las’s petition  for  leave  for  his  wife  and  child  to  go  into  England  with  him.  But  this, 
he  told  me  plainly,  the  king  had  refused ; for  although  the  husband,  being  not 
naturalized,  might  go  if  he  pleased,  yet  the  wife  and  child  were  subjects  of  France, 
and  should  not  have  that  permission.” — Dalrymple’s  Meiijoirs,  vol.  i.,  part  i.,  pp» 
122, 123. 


LADY  CAVERS. 


269 


gone  west  to  Stirling  about  the  taking  of  their  land.  If  it  were 
not  that  her  restraint  confines  both  her  and  the  children  to  Stir- 
ling, I know  the  condition  of  their  health  is  such  as  requires  her 
and  most  of  them  to  be  at  some  wells  this  summer.  I need  not 
tell  you  Avith  what  joy  she  received  the  message  which  brought 
the  news  of  your  curators  having  resolved  to  bring  you  home  this 
summer.  The  solicitous  care  and  constant  tenderness  she  hath 
ever  had  for  you,  may  gain  your  belief  that  nothing  is  capable 
of  giving  such  ease  to  her  present  sufferings  as  the  hopes  of  see- 
ing you  soon,  after  so  long  an  absence.  She  hath  endured  very 
much  in  a long  and  tedious  imprisonment,  and  the  restoring  her 
to  liberty  seems  only  to  have  been  reserved  for  you,  as  the  fittest 
and  most  proper  instrument  for  obtaining  of  the  same.  All  things 
concur  with  that  desire  I know  you  have  to  perform  so  just  and 
necessary  a duty.  You  are  trysted  to  be  at  London  in  such  a 
favorable  juncture,  when  you  hai^e  the  opportunity  of  addressing 
yourself  to  our  great  officers  of  state.  I do  not  know  the  meth- 
ods you  will  be  advised  to  take,  or  what  hopes  there  may  be  of 
success ; but,  to  every  unconcerned  person  it  appears  very  hard 
to  shut  up  liferenters  and  detain  them  in  prison  till  they  pay  a 
sum  of  money  which  exceeds  three  years’  rent  of  their  estate, 
without  allowing  them  any  part  thereof  for  their  maintenance.” 
And  after  stating  the  proceedings  against  the  tenants,  which  have 
been  already  detailed,  he  says  : “We  hear  that  before  the  treas- 
urer went  away.  Sir  Adam  Blair  of  Carberrie,  and  Sir  William 
Lockhart  of  Carstairs  were  commissionat  and  empowered  by  the 
exchequer  to  uplift  and  intromit  with  your  mother’s  fine,  for  pay- 
ment of  an  old  debt  due  to  them  by  the  king ; but  if  a gift  there- 
of (at  least  some  considerable  abatement)  were  procured  at  Lon- 
don, either  for  yourself  or  the  rest  of  the  children,  it  would  make 
void  that  which  is  granted  to  them  by  the  exchequer.  Your 
cousin,  Mr.  Richard,  did  solicit  the  treasurer  before  he  went  out 
of  Scotland,  that  he  might  both  grant  liberation,  and  appoint  some 
aliment  to  your  mother,  out  of  her  own  jointure,  but  he  [the  treas- 
urer] then  declined  to  meddle  in  the  affair.  It  is  Mr.  Richard’s 
opinion,  if  you  duly  attend  the  treasurer,  while  he  is  at  London, 
as  he  promised  to  him  you  would  do,  and  diligently  ply  the  busi- 
ness, that  you  may  both  procure  her  liberty  and  a remit  of  the 
fine.  Castlehill  may  also  be  very  useful  to  gain  the  chancellor 
to  favor  your  suit,  and  who,  I suppose,  is  both  well  enough  known 
to  yourself  and  Mr.  R.  W,  [Robert  Wylie].* 

Sir  William  would  doubtless  do  what  he  could  in  his  mother’s 
" Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxx.,  4to.,  No.  114. 

23* 


270 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


case  ; but  his  success  was  less  than  had  been  anticipated.  After 
using  many  means  in  private  with  influential  persons,  he  at  length, 
in  the  close  of  the  year  1684,  presented  in  her  behalf  the  follow- 
ing petition  to  the  privy  council : — 

‘‘  To  the  Right  Honorable  the  Lords  of  his  Majesty’s  Most  Hon- 
orable Privy  Council — The  humble  Petition  of  Sir  William 
Douglas  of  Cavers,  Showeth, 

“ That  your  petitioner’s  mother  having  been  several  years 
now  in  prison,  for  not  going  to  the  church,  your  petitioner  is  very 
desirous  she  should  be  reclaimed,  but  yet  such  is  his  respect  to 
his  majesty’s  government  and  laws,  that  he  will  not  interpose  for 
anything  that  may  be  of  ill  example  to  others,  and  therefore  he 
humbly  offers  to  your  lordships,  that  because  of  her  great  indis- 
position, and  that  she  may  be  dealt  with  by  her  friends  who  are 
now  very  remote  from  her,  he  may  be  allowed  to  be  cautioner  for 
her,  that  she  shall  either  live  regularly,  or  else  that  within  three 
months  after  the  date  of  her  liberation,  she  shall  remove  forth  of 
this  kingdom,  and  not  return  thereto  without  special  allowance 
from  his  majesty  or  his  privy  council,  by  which  the  country,  if 
she  comply  not,  will  be  freed  from  any  influence  she  may  have, 
or  any  prejudice  she  may  do,  and  which  can  not  be  expected  by 
keeping  her  in  prison ; and  as  this  is  a safe  remedy,  and  will  be 
a sufficient  terror  to  others  in  the  like  circumstances,  there  being 
nothing  so  terrible  to  a wonjan  as  to  leave  her  native  country, 
her  children,  her  friends,  and  acquaintances,  so  the  justices  do 
ordinarily  allow  this  to  such  as  are  even  denounced  fugitives  up- 
on this  occasion,  and  particularly  this  was  allowed  to  the  lady 
Longformacus,*  Lady  Moriston,t  and  others  ; and  your  lordships 
will  find  it  upon  trial  to  be  a far  more  effectual  remedy  than  im- 
prisonment, which,  being  within  one’s  native  country,  becomes 

* “ August  2,  et  dieb.  seq.,  1683.  The  lady  Longformacus  being  pursued  for  re- 
setting of  rebels  ; and  it  being  alleged  for  her  that  she  lived  at  Berwick : the  crim- 
inal lords  ordained  her  to  find  caution  to  live  orderly  when  in  Scotiand,  under  the  ' 
pain  of  three  thousand  merks,  or  else  to  remove  out  of  Scotland,  never  to  returh' 
without  the  king's  special  license.  And  this  course  they  took  with  other  wopien 
pursued,  because  they  could  not  put  them  to  take  the  test.” — FountainhalFs  Decis- 
ions, vol.  i.,  p.  236.  This  lady  was  probably  the  relict  pf  Sir  Robert  Sinclair,  first 
baronet  of  Longformacus,  who  died  in  1678  She  was  his  second  wife  ; and  was 
Margaret,  second  daughter  of  William,  Lord  Alexander,  by  his  wife,  Lady  Marga- 
ret Douglas,  who  was  the  eldest  daughter  of  William,  marquis  of  Douglas. — Doug- 
las’s Baronage  of  Scotland,  p.  250. 

t Lady  Moriston,  “ a pious  and  sensible  gentlewoman,”  was  also  sentenced,  in 
August,  1683,  by  the  justiciary  court,  to  leave  the  kingdom  before  the  1st  of  Novem- 
ber. “ She  appears,”  says  Wodrow,  “ not  to  have  been  cited,  or  any  probation  led 
against  her,  but  summarily  is  banished  for  her  respect  to  the  gospel  and  sufferers.” 
— Wodrow's  HisWly,  vol.  iii.,  p.  472. 


LADY  CAVERS. 


271 


very  familiar  and  easy  in  a very  short  time,  especially  to  melan- 
choly v^omen,  who  use  to  stay  much  within  doors  ; and  your 
lordships’  answer,”  &c.* 

The  tutors  of  Sir  William  had  succeeded,  it  would  appear, 
in  training  him  up,  if  not  to  a hearty  approval  of  the  persecuting 
and  tyrannical  measures  of  the  government,  at  least  to  an  acqui- 
escence in  these  measures,  from  considerations  of  worldly  advan- 
tage ; although  by  doing  so  he  could  not  fail  to  grieve  the  heart 
of  his  mother,  whose  earnest  desire  it  was  to  see  him  following 
in  the  steps  of  his  honored  ancestors,  who  had  nobly  struggled 
in  their  day  for  the  truths  of  Christ,  and  the  liberties  of  the  church. 
In  July,  1684,  he  took  the  test  (which  his  father  would  never 
have  done),  to  qualify  him  for  acting  as  sheriff  of  Teviotdale  ;t 
and  the  style  of  the  above  petition  breathes  a temporizing  spirit. 
But  compromising  as  was  Sir  William  in  his  political  and  reli- 
gious principles,  the  only  ground  upon  which  he  could  induce  the 
council  to  set  his  mother  at  liberty,  was  his  becoming  surety  for 
her,  “ that  she  should  depart  forth  of  this  kingdom  within  the 
space  of  fourteen  days  inclusive,  after  she  should  be  liberated, 
and  should  never  return  thereto  without  his  majesty’s  or  the 
council’s  special  license  ; and  tl^at,  in  the  meantime,  until  the 
said  fourteen  days  elapse,  and  thereafter,  if  she  remained  within 
the  country,  she  should  live  regularly  and  orderly,  and  that  under 
the  penalty  of  nine  thousand  merks  Scots  money,  in  case  of  fail- 
ure ; and  farther,  that  she  should  make  payment  to  his  majesty’s 
cash-keeper,  for  his  majesty’s  use,  of  the  sum  of  live  hundred 
pounds  sterling,  formerly  imposed  upon  her  by  sentence  of  coun- 
cil, at  least  of  so  much  thereof  as  is  yet  resting,  and  not  discharged, 
and  that  betwixt  and  the  term  of  . . . next.”  Sir  William 

having  given  the  security  required,  an  act  of  council  was  passed, 
December  24,  1684,  giving  orders  for  his  mother’s  liberation.! 
The  money  was  exacted  from  him  to  the  last  farthing ; and  his 
mother  removed  out  of  Scotland  within  the  time  specified,  retir- 
ing to  England.  These  facts  we  learn  from  a petition  which 
Sir  William  presented  to  the  privy  council,  humbly  showing  that 
he  had  fully  obeyed  their  lordships’  sentence,  by  paying  to  the 
cash-keeper,  and  those  having  power  and  commission  from  him, 
the  sum  of  live  hundred  pounds  sterling,  being  his  mother’s  fine, 
'and  that  she  had  removed,  within  the  space  of  fourteen  days 
after  her  liberation,  from  Scotland  “ into  the  kingdom  of  England, 

Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxxiii.,  folio,  No.  68.  In  the  Table  of  Contents,  Wodrow 
marks  this  petition  as  written  in  1684. 

t.  Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council,,  25th  July,  1684.  t Ibid. 


272 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


where  she  still  remains  and  therefore  praying  their  “ lordships 
to  appoint  and  ordain  the  clerks  of  council  to  deliver  up  to  him 
his  bond,  as  having  satisfied  and  performed  the  same  in  all  points.” 
At  their  meeting  on  the  28th  of  January,  1686,  the  lords  of  coun- 
cil complied  with  the  prayer  of  this  petition.* 

Such  was  the  issue  of  the  grievous  outrage  committed  upon 
the  person  of  Lady  Cavers,  who  was  first  foully  slandered,  then 
punished  by  a heavy  fine,  without  proof  of  any  offence  committed, 
then  thrown  into  prison,  where  she  was  detained  till  security 
was  given  that  the  fine  should  be  paid  ; and  who,  even  when  that 
security  had  been  given,  and  after  she  had  for  years  been  so 
deeply  injured,  was  compelled  to  leave  the  kingdom.  How  un- 
feeling the  rapacity  of  these  unjust  rulers  ! How  contemptible 
their  unmanly  treatment  of  a lady  whose  helpless  situation  claimed 
for  her  sympathy  and  protection  ! But  so  hateful  in  their  eyes 
was  the  taint  of  presbyterianism,  and  so  lost  were  they  to  every 
honorable  feeling,  that  the  most  eminent  virtue  and  piety  in  ladies 
of  this  persuasion,  afforded  no  security  against  their  becoming 
the  victims  of  the  most  flagrant  injustice  and  oppression.  The 
subsequent  history  of  Lady  Cavers  has  not  been  preserved  ; nor 
have  we  been  able  to  discover  the  time  of  her  death. 


ISABEL  ALISON. 

We  have  previously  met  with  some  of  our  female  worthies 
who  suffered  great  hardships,  though  not  unto  the  death.  W e now 
come  to  record  the  history  of  others  of  them  who  were  called  to 
seal  their  testimony  with  their  blood.  Of  this  class  were  Isabel 
Alison,  and  Marion  Harvey,  two  young  women  in.  humble  life, 
but  of  unsullied  character,  and  genuine  piety.  Their  tragic  and 
deeply  interesting  story  is  enough  of  itself  to  entail  everlasting 
infamy  , on  the  bloody  rulers  who  pursued  them  to  the  death,  not 
for  any  crime,  for  they  had  committed  none,  but  simply  and  solely 
for  their  private  opinions,  which  the  council  had  extorted  from 
them  by  artful  and  ensnaring  questions.  They:  were  tried  together 
upon  the  same  indictment,  and  executed  on  the  same  day  at  the 
Grassmarket  of  Edinburgh.  We  shall  give  a separate  account 
of  each,  beginning  with  the  eldest. 

Warrants  of  Privy  Council. 


ISABEL  ALISON. 


273 


Isabel  Alison  was  an  unmarried  woman  who  lived  at  Perth, 
and  probably  did  not  exceed  twenty-seven  years  of  age.  Among 
her  religious  acquaintances  she  maintained  a high  reputation  for 
sobriety  of  character  and  enlightened  piety.  She  had  sometimes 
heard  Mr.  Donald  Cargill  and  some  other  ministers  preach  in 
the  fields,  before  the  battle  of  Bothwell  bridge,  but  not  often,  field 
conventicles  not  having  been  common  in  the  part  of  the  country 
where  she  lived.  The  sermons  she  heard  on  these  occasions 
were  greatly  blessed  to  her,  and  if  not  the  means  of  her  conver- 
sion, had  confirmed  her  in  the  faith,  and  fortified  her  for  suffering 
in  the  cause  of  Christ.  By  the  ministrations  of  Mr.  Cargill,  she 
had  in  particular  been  deeply  impressed,  and  had  imbibed  the 
peculiar  opinions  held  by  him  and  Mr.  Richard  Cameron. 

These  two  ministers,  though  different  as  to  age,  were  one  in 
spirit.  Cargill  had  seen  many  years  pass  over  him ; his  head 
had  become  gray  in  the  service  of  his  Master : Cameron  was  in 
the  prime  of  youth,  and  had  but  recently  put  on  the  harness. 
Yet  both  were  actuated  by  the  fearless  intrepidity  which  high 
principle  and  deep  piety,  combined  with  constitutional  fortitude, 
often  impart.  With  the  exception  of  Mr.  John  Blackadder,  they 
were  the  only  ministers  who,  after  the  battle  of  Bothwell  bridge, 
preached  in  the  fields  till  Mr.  James  Renwick  appeared  on  the 
stage  ; the  other  field  preachers  having  desisted  by  reason  of  the 
increased,  danger  arising  from  the  increased  exasperation  of  the 
government.  They  and  their  followers  thus  became  the  special 
objects  of  persecuting  vengeance,  and  the  consequence  was,  that, 
driven  to  extremity,  they  renounced  Charles  Stuart  as  their  law- 
ful sovereign,  and  proclaimed  war  against  him  as  a tyrant  and 
usurper. To  this  party,  we  have  said,  Isabel  Alison  belonged  ; 
and  it  was  for  holding  their  principles  in  regard  to  the  unlawful- 
ness of  the  then  existing  civil  government  that  she  was  doomed 

* Cai’gill  and  Cameron,  with  their  followers,  separated  from  all  the  other  presb}^- 
terian  ministers  and  people  who  coaid  not  go  to  the  length  of  disowning  the  author- 
ity of  Charles,  or  who  had  accepted  the  indulgence,  or  who,  though  they  had  not 
accepted  it,  continued  to  maintain  Christian  fellowship  with  such  as  had  done  so. 
•Mr.  John  Blackadder,  though  one  of  the  most  intrepid  field  preachers,  did  not  join 
with  Cargill  and  Cameron’s  party,  not  only  because  he  could  not  see  it  to  be  his 
duty  to  disown  the  then  existing  government,  tyrannical  as  it  was,  but  also  because, 
though  he  would  rather  have  laid  his  head  on  the  block  than  have  accepted  the  in- 
dulgence himself,  he  considered  it  wrong  to  separate,  as  they  did,  from  the  indulged 
ministers.  Between  the  Cameronians  and  the  indulged  party,  much  bitterness  and 
animosity  prevailed.  Blackadder,  who  occupied  a middle  position  between  the 
two  parties,  was  anxious  to  compose  their  differences,  and  to  prevent  them,  if  he 
could  not  unite  them,  from  receding  farther  from  each  other — a very  laudable  un- 
dertaking, but  very  fruitless  in  its  results,  as  too  frequently  happens  in  regard  to  the 
efforts  of  peace-makers,  to  allay  the  contentions  and  heal  the  divisions  which  arise 
even  among  good  men  in  tliis  world  of  strife. 


274 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


to  undergo  a traitor’s  death.  These  principles,  as  we  iearn  from 
herself,  she  had  been  led  to  embrace  from  the  severities  exercised 
by  the  curates  of  Perth  upon  the  presbyterians  in  that  place,  and 
from  the  cruelty  of  the  government  in  publicly  executing  many 
of  the  presbyterians  in  the  Grassmarket  of  Edinburgh,  and  send- 
ing soldiers  through  the  country  to  oppress  and  murder  the  poor 
inoffensive  people.  But  while  holding  these  sentiments,  she 
lield  them  quietly,  there  being  no  evidence  that  she  had  endeav- 
ored to  propagate  them  in  any  way,  either  by  calm  representa- 
tion, or  by  inflammatory  speeches  ; nor  had  the  government  any 
ground  for  alarm  from  any  influence  which  a female,  in  so  humble 
a condition  of  life,  could  have  in  weakening  or  undermining  their 
authority. 

She  was  first  apprehended  for  the  freedom  of  her  remarks 
upon  the  harsh  treatment  to  which  some  religious  nonconforming 
people  in  Perth  were  subjected ; and  when  brought  before  the 
magistrates  of  that  town  they  had  nothing  else  than  this  of  which 
to  accuse  her,  till,  in  her  simplicity  she  voluntarily  confessed  that 
she  had  conversed  with  some  whom  the  government  had  denounced 
rebels  ; by  which  she  had  exposed  herself  to  heavy  penalties. 
Having  been  examined,  she  was  dismissed  by  the  magistrates  ; 
but  not  long  after,  she  was  apprehended  in  her  chamber  at  Perth, 
by  a party  of  soldiers,  in  execution  of  an  order  from  the  privy 
Gouncil,  and  carried  to  Edinburgh,  where  she  was  thrown  into 
prison.  She  was  next  brought  before  a committee  of  the  privy 
council,  who,  having  no  evidence  that  she  had  violated  the  laws 
then  in  force  against  nonconformists,  proceeded,  in  the  true  spirit 
of  the  inquisition,  to  put  to  her  entrapping  questions,  with  the 
view  of  extracting  matter  which  might  form  the  ground  of  crimi- 
nal procedure  against  her.  Beside  the  injustice  of  this  treatment 
in  itself,  the  heartless  levity  with  which  her  examination  was 
conducted,  and  the  attempts  made  at  one  time  to  overawe  a young 
inexperienced  female  by  threatenings,  and  at  another  time  to 
coax  her  by  promises  and  commendations,  was  in  the  highest 
degree  disgraceful  to  the  privy  council.  But  though  her  life  was 
at  stake,  she  was  in  no  wise  daunted  by  the  presence  of  her  per- 
secutors ; she  retained  her  self-possession  in  the  novel  and  em- 
barrassing circumstances  in  which  she  was  placed,  and  the 
pointed  answers  she  returned  to  the  questions  put  to  her,  though 
they  show  that  on  one  or  two  points  she  had  adopted  extreme 
opinions,  are  yet  highly  creditable  not  only  to  the  integrity  of  her 
character,  but  to  the  soundness  of  her  judgment ; while  her  whole 
demeanor  was  marked  by  a propriety  and  dignity  above  her  sta- 


ISABEL  ALISON. 


275 


tion,  and  which  stand  favorably  contrasted  with  the  behavior  of 
the  lords  of  his  majesty’s  privy  council,  who,  as  Wodrow  observes, 
“ acted  the  buffoon,”  instead  of  maintaining  the  decorum  and  dig- 
nity which  became  their  high  office.  Indeed  the  wisdom  and 
self-possession  with  which,  without  premeditation,  she  answered 
the  questions  put  to  her  by  the  council,  is  so  striking  that  we 
can  not  resist  the  impression  that  the  promise  which  the  Savior 
made  to  his  disciples,  when  brought  into  such  circumstances, 
was  remarkably  verified  in  her  case  : “ And  ye  shall  be  brought 
before  governors  and  kings  for  my  sake,  for  a testimony  against 
them  and  the  Gentiles.  But  when  they  deliver  you  up,  take  no 
thought  how  or  what  ye  shall  speak  ; for  it  shall  be  given  you  in 
that  same  hour  what  ye  shall  speak,”  (Matt.  x.  18,  19.) 

The  questions  put  to  her  by  the  privy  council,  and  the  answers 
she  returned,  which  we  give  entire,  are  as  follows  : — 

P.  C.  ‘‘  Where  do  you  live,  at  St.  Johnstoun?”* 

I.  A.  ‘‘Yes.” 

P.  C.  “ What  is  your  occupation  ?” 

To  this  question  she  returned  no  answer. 

Bishop  Patterson.  “ Have  you  conversed  with  Mr.  Donald 
Cargill  r’ 

I.  A.  “ Sir,  you  seem  to  me  a man  whom  I have  no  clearness 
to  speak  to.”  He  desired  another  member  of  the  council  to  put 
the  same  question,  which  being  done,  she  answered,  “ I have 
seen  him,  and  I wish  that  I had  seen  him  oftener.” 

P.  C.  “ Do  you  own  what  he  has  done  against  the  civil  magis- 
trate ?” 

I.  A.  “ I do  own  it.” 

P.  C.  “ Can  you  read  the  Bible  ?” 

I.  A.  “Yes.” 

P.  C.  “ Do  you  know  the  duty  we  owe  to  the  civil  magis- 
trate ?” 

I.  A.  “When  the  magistrate  carrieth  the  sword  for  God,  ac- 
cording to  what  the  Scripture  calls  for,  we  owe  him  all  due  rev- 
erence ; but  when  magistrates  overturn  the  work  of  God  and  set 
themselves  in  opposition  to  him,  it  is  the  duty  of  his  servants  to 
execute  his  laws  and  ordinances  on  them.” 

P.  C.  “Do  you  own  the  ‘ Sanquhar  Declaration’  ?”t 

* The  old  name  of  Perth. 

t This  was  a paper  or  manifesto  drawn  up  in  1680  by  Mr.  Richard  Cameron  and 
some  of  his  followers,  in  which  they  “disown  Charles  Stuart  as  having  any  right, 
title  to,  or  interest  in,  the  said  crown  of  Scotland  for  government,  as  forfeited  several 
years  since  by  his  perjury  and  breach  of  covenant  to  both  God  and  his  kirk,  and 
usurpation  of  his  crown  and  royal  prerogatives  therein,  and  many  other  breaches  in 


276 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


1.  A.  “ I do  own  it.” 

P.  C.  ‘‘  Do  you  own  the  papers  taken  at  the  Queensferry  on 
Henry  Hall?”* 

LA.  “You  need  not  question  that.” 

P.  C.  “ Do  you  know  Mr.  Skene  ?” 

I.  A.  “I  never  saw  him.” 

P C.  “ Have  you  conversed  with  rebels  ?” 

LA.  “I  never  conversed  with  rebels.” 

P.  C.  “ Have  you  conversed  with  David  Hackstoun  ?” 

I.  A.  “I  have  conversed  with  him,  and  I bless  the  Lord  that 
ever  I saw  him,  for  I never  saw  aught  in  him  but  a godly,  pious 
youth.” 

P.  C.  “Was  the  killing  of  the  bishop  of  St.  Andrewsf  a pious 
act  ?” 

matters  ecclesiastic,  and  by  his  tyranny  and  breach  of  the  very  leges  regnandi  in 
matters  civil and  in  which  they  declare  war  against  him  as  a tyrant  and  usurper. 
About  twenty  of  the  party  came  together  in  arms  to  Sanquhar  upon  the  22d  of  June, 
and  after  the  Declaration  was  read  at  the  cross,  affixed  a copy  of  it  there.  It  is  ac- 
cordingly usually  called  “ The  Sanquhar  Declaration,"'  from  the  place  where  it  was 
published.  What  share  Cargill  had  in  the  compilation  of  this  paper  is  not  known. 
At  his  examination  before  the  privy  council,  he  denied  that  he  was  at  the  emitting 
of  it,  and  declared  that  he  did  not  see  it  till  after  it  was  published,  but  refused  to  say 
whether  he  had  any  hand  in  drawing  it  up. — (Wodrow’s  Hist.,  vol.iii,  pp.  212,  280.) 
The  Sanquhar  Declaration,  as  might  have  been  expected,  infuriated  the  government 
against  the  Cameronians,  and  one  of  the  questions  which,  after  its  proclamation,  was 
usually  put  to  the  presbyterians  brought  before  the  privy  council  was,  “ Do  you  own 
the  Sanquhar  Declaration?”  If  they  answered  in  the  affirmative,  this  was  consid- 
ered equivalent  to  a confession  of  high-treason,  and  on  this  confession  they  were 
hanged  at  the  Grassmarket. 

* The  papers  here  referred  to  were  what  was  commonly  called  ‘‘  The  Gueens- 
ferry  Paper,”  or  “ Cargill’s  Covenant,”  and,  by  the  government,  “ The  Fanatics' 
New  Covenant.”  This  document  was  found  on  Henry  Hall  of  Haughead,  in  the 
following  manner : He  and  Mr.  Cargill,  when  travelling  in  the  South  Gueensferry 
by  the  castle  of  Blackness,  about  the  beginning  of  June,  1680,  were  followed  by  the 
captain  of  the  garrison  of  the  castle,  and  taken  immediately  on  their  arrival  at  the 
town  of  Gueensferry,  but  were  soon  after  rescued  by  a company  of  women.  Car- 
gill made  his  escape;  but  Hall,  having  in  a scuffle  with  the  soldiers  been  mortally 
wounded,  soon  after  fell  into  the  hands  of  a party  under  the  command  of  Dalziel ; 
and  on  his  being  searched,  there  was  found  upon  him  an  unsubscribed  paper  in  the 
form  of  a covenant,  in  which,  among  other  things,  Charles  is  rejected  from  being 
king.  It  was  generally  supposed  to  ha-ve  been  drawn  up  by  Cargill,  with  the  ad- 
vice and  knovvledge  of  only  a very  few  of  his  party,  and  was  merely  a rude  draught 
intended  to  be  sent  over  to  the  banished  and  refugee  presbyterians  in  Holland  for 
their  consideration,  and  to  be  laid  asidCr  or  acted  upon,  as  they  should  advise.  Hall 
was  waiting  for  an  opportunity  of  going  over  to  Holland  when  he  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  enemy.  After  this  paper  was  discovered,  a constant  question  put  by  the 
privy  council  to  the  presbyterians  brought  before  them  was,  “Do  you  own  the 
Gueensferry  Paper?” — (Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  206-212.)  And  not  a few 
were  hanged  simply  for  declaring  that  they  adhered  to  it. — (Fountainhall’s  Histori- 
cal Notices,  &c.,  vol.  i.,  p.  284.)  The  Sanquhar  Declaration,  mentioned  in  the  pre- 
ceding note,  was  drawn  up  in  less  than  three  weeks  after  the  discovery  of  the 
Gueensferry  Paper. 

t James  Sharp,  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  fell  by  violence  on  Saturday,  the  3d 
of  May,  1679,  at  midday,  on  Magus  muir,  within  two  miles  of  St  Andrews.  “ Sat- 


ISABEL  ALISON. 


277 


LA.  “I  never  heard  him  say  that  he  killed  him  ; but  if  God 
moved  any,  and  put  it  upon  them  to  execute  his  righteous  judg- 
ments upon  him,  I have  nothing  to  say  to  that.” 

P.  C.  ‘‘  When  savr  you  John  Balfour,  that  pious  youth?” 

I.  A.  “ I have  seen  him.” 

P.  C.  “When?” 

I.  A.  “ These  are  frivolous  questions  ; I aui  not  bound  to  an- 
swer them.” 

At  which  they  said,  “ You  don’t  think  that  a testimony.” 

P.  C.  “ What  think  you  of  that  in  the  ‘ Confession  of  Faith,’ 
that  magistrates  should  be  owned  though  they  were  heathens  ?” 

LA.  “ It  was  another  matter  than  when  those  who  seemed  to 
own  the  truth  have  now  overturned  it,  and  made  themselves 
avowed  enemies  to  it.” 

P.  C.  “ Who  should  be  judge  of  these  things  ?” 

LA.  “ The  Scriptures  of  truth  and  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  not 
men  that  have  overturned  the  work  themselves.” 

P.  C.  “ Do  you  know  the  two  Hendersons  that  murdered  the 
Lord  St.  Andrews  ?” 

LA.  “I  never  knew  any  Lord  St.  Andrews.” 

P.  C.  “ Mr.  James  Sharp,  if  you  call  him  so  ?” 

1.  A.  “I  never  thought  it  murder;  but  if  God  moved  and 
stirred  them  up  to  execute  his  righteous  judgment  upon  him,  I 
have  nothing  to  say  to  that.” 

P.  C.  “ Whether  or  not  will  you  own  all  that  you  have  said, 
for  you  will  be  put  to  own  it  in  the  Grassmarket  ?”  And  they 
expressed  their  regret  that  she  should  put  her  life  in  hazard  in 
such  a quarrel. 

.1.  A.  “ I think  my  life  little  enough  in  the  quarrel  of  owning 
my  Lord  and  Master’s  sweet  truths  ; for  he  hath  freed  me  from 
everlasting  wrath,  and  redeemed  me  : and  as  for  my  body,  it  is 
at  his  disposal.” 

P.  C.  “ You  do  not  follow  the  Lord’s  practice  in  that  anent 
Pilate.” 

LA.  “ Chrkt  owned  his  kingly  office  when  he  was  questioned 
on  it,  and  he  told  them  he  was  a king,  and  for  that  end  was  he 
born.  And  it  is  for  that  we  are  called  in  question  this  day,  the 
owning  of  his  kingly  government.” 

Bishop  Paterson.  “We  own  it.” 

1.  A.  “We  have  found  the  sad  consequence  of  the  contrary.” 

Bishop  Paterson.  “ I pity  you  for  the  loss  of  your  life.” 

urday  had  been  fatal  to  him,’’  says  Fountainhall ; “ on  it  Mitchell  made  his  attempt.” 
-—Historical  Notices,  &c.,  vol.  i.,  p.  225. 

24 


278 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


LA.  You  have  done  me  much  more  hurt  than  the  loss  of  my 
life,  or  all  the  lives  you  and  they  have  taken ; for  it  hath  much 
more  affected  me  that  many  souls  have  been  killed  by  your  doc- 
trine.” 

Bishop  Paterson.  ‘‘  Wherein  is  our  doctrine  erroneous 

I.  A.  “ That  has  been  better  debated  already  than  a poor  lass 
can  debate  it.” 

P.  C.  “ Your  ministers  do  not  approve  of  these  things ; and 
you  have  said  more  than  some  of  your  ministers  ; for  your  min- 
isters have  brought  you  to  these  opinions,  and  left  you  there.” 

LA.  “You  have  cast  in  baits  among  the  ministers,  and  hurled 
them  aside ; and  although  ministers  say  one  thing  to-day,  and 
another  to-morrow,  we  are  not  obliged  to  follow  them  in  that.” 

P.  C.  “We  pity  you ; for  we  find  reason  and  a quick  wit  in 
you ; and  would  have  you  to  take  the  matter  into  consideration.” 

1.  A.  “I  have  been  advising  on  it  these  seven  years,  and  I 
hope  not  to  change  now.” 

P.  C.  “ Do  you  lecture  any  ?”  asked  they,  mockingly. 

LA.  “ Quakers  [quakeresses  ?]  used  to  do  so.” 

P.  C.  “ Do  you  own  presbyterian  principles  ?” 

LA.  “Ido.” 

P.  C.  “ Are  you  distempered?”  . 

LA.  “I  was  always  solid  in  the  wit  that  God  has  given  me.” 

P.  C.  “ What  is  your  name  ?” 

LA.  “ Since  you  have  staged  me,  you  might  remember  my 
name,  for  I have  told  you  already,  and  will  not  always  be  telling 
you.” 

One  of  them  said,  “ May  you  not  tell  us  your  name  ?”  Then 
one  of  themselves  told  it.* 

From  these  answers,  the  council  had  now  discovered  all  that 
they  deemed  necessary  for  instituting  criminal  proceedings  against 
her  for  high-treason.  But  what  had  they  discovered  ? Merely 
certain  opinions  which  she  had  adopted,  some -of  them  indeed 
extreme,  such  as  it  was  natural  enough  for  a young,  unlettered, 
religious  female,  in  the  circumstances  of  the  times,  to  embrace, 
but  which  an  upright  and  honorable  government  would  have 
deemed  it  beneath  its  dignity  to  notice.  “ There  is  no  treason, 
sure,”  says  one  of  Sir  Walter  Scott’s  characters,  “ in  a man  en- 
joying his  own  thoughts  under  the  shadow  of  his  own  bonnet;” 
and  every  man  possessing  an  ordinary  sense  of  justice  will  be  of 
the  same  mind.  The  opinions  of  this  female  as  to  the  unlawful- 
ness  of  the  civil  government  then  existing  could  certainly  do  no 
^ Cloud  of  Witnesses,  pp.  85-87. 


ISABEL  ALISON. 


279 


harm  as  long  as  they  were  confined  within  the  recesses  of  her 
own  mind ; and  the  council  had  no  evidence  that  she  had  ever 
given  utterance  to  them  even  in  a single  instance,  except  in  an- 
swer to  the  harassing  questions  with  which  they  plied  her ; and 
yet,  for  mere  opinions  thus  extorted,  they  resolved  to  pursue  her 
to  the  death ! She  was  accordingly  next  brought  before  the 
lords  of  justiciary  on  the  6th  of  December,  1680,  with  the  design 
of  bringing  her  to  own,  before  that  court,  the  confession  she  had 
made  before  the  privy  council,  that  the  confession,  thus  becom- 
ing judicial,  might  be  made  the  ground  of  a criminal  process. 
Such  was  the  constant  practice  of  the  privy  council  at  this  time 
— the  one  day  to  bring  the  covenanters  who  fell  into  their  hands 
before  them,  and  there  involve  them  by  inquisitorial  examinations 
into  a confession  of  statutory  crimes,  sometimes  threatening  them 
with  the  thumbscrew  and  boot,  if  they  were  not  free  and  ingenu- 
ous ; and  the  next  day  to  bring  them  before  the  justiciary  court, 
‘‘  where,  if  they  were  silent,  they  were  asked  if  they  would  quit 
the  testimony  they  had  given  yesterday.”*  From  the  confessions 
thus  extorted,  an  indictment  was  framed,  and  a packed  juay  hav- 
ing brought  them  in  guilty,  they  were  hanged  at  the  Grassmarket 
or  the  Gallowlee.  Such  was  the  mode  of  procedure  which  the 
government  thought  proper  to  adopt  against  this  excellent  woman. 

The  questions  put  to  her  when  brought  before  the  lords  of  jus- 
ticiary, and  the  answers  she  returned,  are  as  follows  — 

L.  J.  ‘‘  Will  you  abide  by  what  you  said  last  day  V’ 

LA.  “I  am  not  about  to  deny  anything  of  it.” 

L.  J.  ‘‘  You  confessed  that  you  harbored  the  killers  of  the 
bishop,  though  you  would  not  call  it  murder  ?” 

LA.  “I  confessed  no  such  thing.” 

Lprd  Advocate.  “ You  did  !” 

1.  A.  “I  did  not ; and  I will  take  with  no  untruths  !” 

Lord  Advocate.  ‘‘  Did  you  not.  converse  with  them  ?” 

L A.  “I  said  I -did  converse  with  David  Hackstoun,  and  1 
bless  the  Lord  for  it.” 

L.  J.*‘'  When  saw  you  him  last  ?” 

LA.  ‘‘  Never  since  you  murdered  him.” 

Then  they  desired  her  to  say  over  what  she  said  the  last  day ; 
to  which  she  replied,  ‘‘Would  you  have  me  to  be  my  own  ac- 
cuser?” They  said  to  her  that  the  advocate  was  her  accuser. 
“ Let  him  say  on,  then  !”  rejoined  she,  with  spirit.  Then  they 
repeated  what  had  passed  between  the  council  and  her  the  other 
day,  and  required  her  to  say  whether  or  not  that  was  true — yes 
Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  276. 


280 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


or  no.  She  answered,  Ye  have  troubled  me  too  much  with 
answering  questions,  seeing  ye  are  a judicature  which  I have  no 
clearness  to  answer.” 

L.  J.  “ Do  you  disown  us,  and  the  king’s  authority  in  us  ?” 

LA.  “I  disown  you  all,  because  you  carry  the  sword  against 
God,  and  not  for  him  ; and  have,  these  nineteen  or  twenty  years, 
made  it  your  work  to  dethrone  him,  by  swearing,  year  after  year, 
against  him  and  his  work,  and  assuming  that  power  to  a human 
creature  which  is  due  to  Him  alone,  and  have  rent  the  ministers 
from  their  Head  (Christ)  and  one  another.” 

L.  J.  “ Who  taught  you  these  principles  ?” 

1.  A.  “I  am  beholden  to  God  that  taught  me  these  principles.” 

L.  J.  “ Are  you  a quaker  ?” 

LA.  “ Did  you  hear  me  say  I was  led  by  a spirit  within  me  ? 
I bless  the  Lord  I profited  much  by  the  persecuted  gospel ; and 
your  acts  of  indemnity,  after  Bothwell,  cleared  me  more  than 
anything  I met  with  since.” 

L.  J.  “ How  could  that  be  ?” 

LA.  “ By  your  meddling  with  Christ’s  interests,  and  parting 
them  as  you  pleased.” 

L.  J.  “We  do  not  usurp  Christ’s  prerogatives.” 

1.  A.  “What,  then,  mean  your  indulgences,  and  your  setting 
up  of  prelacy  ? for  there  has  none  preached  publicly  these  twenty 
years  without  persecution,  but  those  that  have  had  their  orders 
from  you.” 

Then  they  caused  bring  the  Sanquhar  Declaration,  and  the  pa- 
per found  on  Mr.  Richard  Cameron,  and  the  papers  taken  at 
Queensferry,  and  asked,  “ WTll  you  adhere  to  them?” 

LA.  “I  will,  as  they  are  according  to  the  Scriptures,  and  I 
see  not  wherein  they  contradict  them.” 

L.  J.  “ Did  ever  Mr.  Welsh  or  Mr.  Riddell  teach  you  these 
principles  ?” 

LA.  “I  would  be  far  in  the  wrong  to  speak  anything  that 
might  wrong  them.” 

L.  J.  “ Take  heed  what  you  are  saying,  for  it  is  upon  life  and 
death  that  you  are  questioned.” 

LA.  “ Would  you  have  me  to  lie  ? I would  not  quit  one  truth 
though  it  would  purchase  my  life  a thousand  years,  which  you 
can  not  purchase  nor  promise  me  an  hour.” 

L.  J.  “ When  saw  you  the  two  Hendersons  and  John  Balfour  ? 
Seeing  you  love  ingenuity  [ingenuousness],  will  you  be  ingenu- 
ous, and  tell  us  if  you  saw  them  &ince  the  death  of  the  bishop  ?” 

LA.  “ They  appeared  publicly  within  the  land  since.” 


ISABEL  ALISON. 


281 


L.  J.  “ Have  you  conversed  with  them  within  these  twelve 
months  ?” 

At  this  question  she  remained  silent. 

L.  J.  “ Say  either  yea  or  nay.” 

1.  A.  “ Yes.” 

L.  J.  “ Your  blood  be  upon  your  own  head ! we  shall  be  free 
of  it.” 

I.  A.  “ So  said  Pilate  ; but  it  was  a question  if  it  was  so  : and 
you  have  nothing  to  say  against  me  but  for  owning  of  Christ’s 
truths,  and  his  persecuted  members.” 

To  this  they  made  no  answer.  Then  they  desired  her  to  sub- 
scribe what  she  had  owned,  but  she  refused ; upon  which  they 
subscribed  it  for  her.* 

The  substance  of  the  answers  she  had  given,  in  so  far  as  the 
court  judged  them  criminating,  was  drawn  up  by  the  clerk  into 
the  following  document,  which  they  called  her  confession,  and 
which  was  subscribed  by  the  lords  justiciary  : — 

“ Edinburgh,  December  6,  1680. 

“ The  said  day,  in  presence  of  the  lords,  justice-clerk,  and  com- 
missioners of  justiciary,  sitting  in  judgment,  compeared  Isabel 
Alison,  prisoner ; and  being  interrogate  concerning  several  mat- 
ters, answered,  that  she  was  not  obliged  to  answer  to  the  lords 
of  justiciary,  for  she  did  not  look  upon  them  as  judges,  and  de- 
clined their  authority,  and  the  king’s  authority  by  which  they  sit, 
because  they  carry  the  sword  against  the  Lord  ; and  owns  the 
‘ Bond  of  Combination,’!  subscribed  by  Mr.  Richard  Cameron, 
Mr.  Thomas  Douglas,  and  others,  and  adheres  thereto,  the  same 
being  publicly  read  to  her  ; and  the  fourth  article  of  the  ‘ Fanatics’ 
New  Covenant’!  being  read  to  her,  as  also  the  ‘ Declaration  at 

* Cloud  of  W itnesses. 

t This  was  a bond  or  covenant  for  mutual  defence,  which  Richard  Cameron,  and 
about  thirty  more,  entered  into  and  subscribed  shortly  after  the  publication  of  the 
Sanquhar  Declaration.  Among  other  things,  it  disowned  the  civil  government  then 
existing.  It  was  Ibund  on  Richard  Cameron  at  Airsmoss,  where  he  fell  fighting 
bravely  in  self-defence. — See  Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  218. 

t That  is,  the  Clueensferry  Paper  or  Covenant.  The  fourth  article  of  this  Cove- 
nant runs  as  follows : “ That  we  shall  endeavor,  to  our  utmost,  the  overthrow  of 
the  kingdom  of  darkness,  and  whatever  is  contrary  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  espe- 
cially idolatry  and  popery,  in  all  the  articles  of  it,  as  we  are  b^ound  in  our  national 
Covenants;  superstition,  will- worship,  and  prelacy,  with  its  hierarchy,  as  we  are 
bound  in  our  Solemn  League  and  Covenant ; and  that  we  shall,  with  the  same  sin- 
cerity, endeavor  the  overthrow  of  that  power  (it  being  no  more  authority)  that  hath 
established  and  upholds  that  kingdom  of  darkness,  that  prelacy,  to  wit,  and  Eras- 
tianism  over  the  church,  and  hath  exercised  such  a lustful  and  arbitrary  tyranny 
over  the  subjects,  taken  all  power  in  their  hand,  that  they  may  at  their  pleasure 
introduce  popery  in  the  church,  as  they  have  done  arbitrary  government  in  the 
state.’’ — Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  208. 

24* 


282  " THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 

Sanquhar,’  she  adhered  thereto ; and  said  she  saw  nothing  in 
them  against  the  Scriptures,  and  therefore  she  owned  them,  but 
refused  to  sign  this  her  declaration,  though  she  can  write. 

( Sic  suhscrihitur J — 

Maitland, 

“ Daniel  Balfour, 

“ Ja.  Falconer, 

“ Roger  Hog.”* 

It  was  now  resolved  to  proceed  against  her  before  the  justicia- 
ry court,  and  a libel  was  drawn  up,  founded  solely  upon  her  own 
confession.  Her  trial  took  place  on  the  17th  of  January,  1681. 
In  the  indictment!  she  is  charged  with  receiving,  maintaining, 
supplying,  intercommuning,  and  keeping  correspondence  with 
Mr.  Donald  Cargill,  Mr.  Thomas  Douglas,  Mr.  John  Welsh,  the 
deceased  Mr.  Richard  Cameron,  the  bloody  and  sacrilegious  mur- 
derers of  Archbishop  Sharp,  and  with  having  heard  the  said  minis- 
ters preach  up  treason  and  rebellion.  In  it  she  is  further  charged 
with  owning  and  adhering  to  the  “ horrid  and  treasonable  papers” 
called  “ The  Fanatics’  New  Covenant,”  and  the  Sanquhar  Decla- 
ration, which  the  above  ministers  and  their  associates,  it  is  as- 
serted, formed  and  devised,  and  with  owning  and  adhering  to  the 
‘‘  unchristian  expressions,  principles,  and  opinions  therein  con- 
tained.” And  it  concluded  with  declaring  that  of  the  above  trea- 
sonable crimes  she  was  actor,  art  and  part,  which  being  found 
proven  by  a jury,  she  ought  to  be  punished  with  forfeiture  of  life, 
land,  and  goods,  to  be  a terror  of  others  to  commit  the  like  here- 
after. 

The  indictment  having  been  read,  she  was  asked  by  the  court 
if  she  had  any  objections  against  it,  to  which  she  answered  that 
she  had  none.  They  next  successively  read  the  Sanquhar  Dec- 
laration, and  the  document  called  the  New  Covenant,  asking  at 
the  close  of  the  reading  of  each  paper,  if  she  owned  it,  to  which 
she  answered  in  the  affirmative.  The  indictment  having  been 
found  relevant  by  the  court,  and  remitted  to  the  knowledge  of  a 
jury,  the  jury  were  next  called,  who  showed  .considerable  reluc- 
tance to  appear,  and  only  came  forward  on  being  threatened  with 
fines.  Two  of  them  absented  themselves  altogether,  for  which 
they  were  fined  by  the  court and  one  of  them  had  so  strong,  a 

Records  of  the  Justiciary  Court.  . , 

t See  her  indictment,  and  that  of  Marion  Harvey,  in  Appendix,  No.  VI. 
t “December  22, 1680,  The  said  day,  Robert  Campbell,  merchant,  and. Alexan- 
der Hume,  his  majesty’s  taylor,  being  ofttimes  called  to  have  compeared  befoi'e  the 
said  lords  this  day  and  place,  in  the  hour  of  cause  to  have  passed  upon  the  assize  of 
Isabel  Alison  and  Marion  Harvey,  prisoners,  as  they  were  lawfully  cited  for  th^t 


ISABEL  ALISON. 


28a 


conviction  of  the  iniquity  of  the  whole-  proceedings,  that  when, 
after  the  court  refused,  at  his  desire,  to  exempt  him  from  being  a 
juryman,  he  was  required  to  swear  the  usual  oath,  he  trembled 
so  much  that  he  could  not  hold  up  his  hand.  Before  the  jury 
was  sworn,  on  being  asked  by  the  court  if  she  had  any  objectioms 
to  offer  against  any  of  them,  she  answered  that  they  were  all  alike, 
for  no  honest  man  would  take  the  trade  in  hand.  The  jury  being 
sworn,  she  told  them  that  all  authority  is  of  God  (Rom.  xiii.  1) ; 
that  when  they  appeared  against  him  she  was  clear  to  disown 
them  ; that  had  they  not  been  against  them  she  would  not  have 
been  there,  and  added,  “ I take  every  one  of  you  witness  against 
another  at  your  appearance  before  God,  that  your  proceeding 
against  me  is  only  for  owning  of  Christ,  his  gospel  and  mem- 
bers ; which  I could  not  disown,  lest  I should  come  under  the 
hazard  of  denying  Christ,  and  so  be  denied  of  him.”* 

The  probation  then  proceeded.  But  the  only  proof  which  the 
prosecutor.  Sir  George  M‘Kenzie,  his  majesty’s  advocate,  could 
adduce,  was^  her  own  confession,  which  she  had  made  before 
the  lords  of  justiciary.  This  document  (see  p.  281)  was  now 
read  in  court ; and  in  answer  to  a question  put  to  her,  she  owned 
and  adhered  to  it  in  presence  of  the  jury.  The  king’s  advocate 
then  addressed  the  jury.  You  know,”  said  he,  “ that  these 
women!  are  guilty  of  treason.”  “ They  are  not  guilty  of  matter 
of  fact,”  said  the  jury.  “ Treason  is  fact,”  said  he  ; but  correct- 
ing himself,  he  added,  “ it  is  true,  it  is  but  treason  in  their  judg- 
ment ; but  go  on  according  to  our  law,  and  if  you  will  not  do  it, 
I will  proceed.”!  He  further  said,  making  a feeble  attempt  to 
ward  off  from  the  government  the  odium  of  taking  the  lives  of 
these  two  confessors,  “We  do  not  desire  to  take  their  lives  ; for 
we  have  dealt  with  them  many  ways,  and  sent  ministers  to  deal 
with  them,  and  we  can  not  prevail  with  them.” 

effect,  lawful  time  of  day  bidden,  and  they  not  compeared  ; the  lords  justice-clerk 
and  commissioners  of  justiciary,  therefore,  by  the  mouth  of  John  Bauzie,  macer  of 
court,  decerned  and  adjudged  them,  and  each  of  them,  to  be  an  unlawe,  and  amerciat 
of  one  hundred  merks  Scots,  which  was  pronounced  for  doom.” — Records  of  the 
Justiciary  Court,  Cloud  of  Witnesses,  p.  89. 

t ‘Marion  Harvey,  as  has  been  said  before,  was  tried  at  the  same  time,  and  on 
the  same  indictment  with  Isabel  Alison. 

t This  seems  like  threatening  them  with  an  assize  of  error.  “ This  relict  of  bar- 
barous times  was  a power  intrusted  to  the  public  prosecutor  to  bring  any  of  the 
jurymen,  or  a majority  of  them,  *to  trial,  for  not  having  decided  according  to  the  law 
as  laid  down  to  them..  Of  this  absurd  and  tyrannical  engine  to  intimidate  the  jury 
from  deciding  according  to  their  convictions,  M'Kenzie  made  ample  use ; he  no 
sooner  observed  any  symptoms  of  hesitation,  or  of  a desire  to  befriend  the  prisoners 
at  the  bar,  than,  with  a terrific  frown,  he  would  swear  that  if  they  did  not  give 
their  verdipt  according  to  law,  he  knew  what  to  do  with  them — M‘Crie's  Sketch- 
es of  Scottish  Church  History,  2d- Edition,  p.  483. 


264 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COYENANl. 


The  speech  of  the  lord  advocate  being  concluded,  the  jury  re- 
moved from  the  court  to  the  jury-house,  to  reason  and  vote  upon 
the  articles  of  the  indictment  and  the  proof,  but  soon  returned  to 
the  court,  and  by  their  chancellor  delivered  their  verdict  in  pres- 
ence of  the  lords  of  justiciary,  unanimously  finding  Isabel  Ali- 
son “ guilty,  conform  to  her  confession  of  adherence  to  the  fourth 
article  of  The  Fanatics’  New  Covenant,  and  to  the  Declaration 
at  Sanquhar,  and  to  the  Bond  of  Combination ; but  as  actor  or 
receipter  of  rebels,  they  find  it  not  proven.” 

The  lords  delayed  the  pronouncing  of  doom  and  sentence 
against  her  till  Friday  at  twelve  o’clock,  being  the  21st  of  the 
current  month.  On  the  21st,  she  was  again  brought  before  the 
court  to  receive  her  “ doom  and  sentence  for  the  treasonable 
crimes  mentioned  in  her  dittay”  (indictment),  which  was,  that 
she  “be  taken  to  the  Grassmarket  of  Edinburgh,  upon  Wednes- 
day next,  the  26th  instant,  betwixt  two  and  four  o’clock  in  the 
afternoon,  and  there  to  be  hanged  on  a gibbet  till  she  be  dead, 
and  all  her  lands,  heritages,  goods,  and  gear  whatsomever,  to  be 
escheat,  and  inbrought  to  our  sovereign  lord’s  use,  which  was 
pronounced  for  doom.”* 

Such  was  the  bloody  sentence  pronounced  upon  this  female, 
not  for  any  act  of  resistance  to  the  laws,  but  solely  for  the  opin- 
ions she  held,  and  which  had  been  discovered  only  by  the  artful 
and  captious  questions  with  which  she  had.  been  teased.  But 
though  condemned  to  die  ostensibly  for  treason,  she  felt  perfectly 
persuaded  in  her  own  mind  that  the  real  ground  upon  which  her 
condemnation  proceeded,  was  her  adherence  to  the  persecuted 
cause  of  Christ.  In  her  dying  testimony,  which  she  subscribed 
and  left  behind  her,  dated  Edinburgh  tolbooth,  January  26,  1681, 
speaking  on  this  subject,  she  says  : “ The  manner  of  my  exami- 
nation [before  the  committee  of  the  privy  council,  and  before  the 
justiciary  court],  was,  1st,  If  I conversed  with  David  Hackstoun, 
and  others  of  our  friends  ? Which  I owned  upon  good  grounds. 
2dly,  If  I owned  the  excommunication  at  the  Torwood,  and  the 
papers  found  at  the  Queensferry,  and  the  Sanquhar  Declaration, 
and  a paper  found  on  Mr.  Cameron,  at  Airsmoss  ? All  which  I 
owned.  Likewise  I declined  their  authority,  and  told  them  that 
they  had  declared  war  against  Christ,  and  had  usurped  and  taken 
his  prerogatives,  and  so  carried  the  sword  against  him,  and  not 
for  him : so  I think  none  can  own  them  unless  they  disown 
Christ  Jesus.  Therefore,  let  enemies  and  pretended  friends  say 
what  they  will,  I could  have  my  life  on  no  easier  terms  than 
* Records  of  the  Justiciaiy  Court. 


ISABEL  ALISON. 


285 


the  denying  of  Christ’s  kingly  office.  So  I lay  down  my  life  for 
owning  and  adhering  to  Jesus  Christ,  his  being  a free  king  in  his 
own  house,  and  I bless  the  Lord  that  ever  he  called  me  to  that.” 

Among  other  things,  she  expresses  her  adherence  to  the  Na- 
tional Covenant,  and  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,*  and  enters 
her  protestation  against  all  the  violence  done  to  the  work  of  God 
for  twenty  years  bygone. 

During  the  time  which  elapsed  from  her  condemnation  to  her 
execution,  the  grace  of  God,  by  which  she  had  been  hitherto 
sustained,  did  not  forsake  her.  She  not  only  retained  her  com- 
posure and  fortitude,  but  was  full  of  nope  and  joy,  accounting  it 
her  honor  that  she  had  been  called  to  surrender  her  life  in  the 
cause  of  Christ.  ‘‘  Oh,  the  everlasting  covenant,”  she  says,  ‘‘  it  is 
sweet  to  me  now  ! And  I would  also  say,  they  that  would  follow 
Christ  need  not  scare  at  the  cross,  for  I can  set  my  seal  to  it, 

‘ His  yoke  is  easy  and  his  burden  is  light.’  Yea,  many  times  he 
hath  made  me  go  very  easy  through  things  that  I have  thought  I 
would  never  have  win  through.  He  is  the  only  desirable  mas- 
ter, but  he  must  be  followed  fully.  Rejoice  in  him  all  ye  that 
love  him,  ‘ wherefore  lift  up  your  heads  and  be  exceeding  glad, 
for  the  day  of  your  redemption  draweth  nigh.’  Let  not  your 
hearts  faint,  nor  your  hands  grow  feeble  ; go  on  in  the  strength 
of  the  Lord,  my  dear  friends,  for  I hope  he  will  yet  have  a rem- 
nant of  both  sons  and  daughters,  that  will  cleave  to  him,  though 
they  will  be  very  few,  ‘ even  as  the  berries  on  the  top  of  the  out- 
most branches.’  As  for  such  as  are  grown  weary  of  the  cross 
of  Christ,  and  have  drawn  to  a lee-shore  that  God  never  allowed, 
it  may  be,  ere  all  be  done,  it  will  turn  like  a tottering  fence,  and 
a bowing  wall  to  them,  and  they  shall  have  little  profit  of  it,  and 
as  little  credit.  But  what  shall  I say  to  the  commendation  of 
Christ  and  his  cross  ? I bless  the  Lord,  praise  to  his  holy 
name,  that  hath  made  my  prison  a palace  to  me  ; and  what  am 
I that  he  should  have  dealt  thus  with  me  ? I have  looked 

^ Like  “the  testimony’’  of  the  two  Apocalyptic  witnesses,  which  “tormented 
them  that  dwelt  on  the  earth,”  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  was  gall  and 
wormwood  to  the  government.  So  deeply  did  they  hate  it,  that  on  the  18th  of  Jan- 
uary, 1682,  by  act  of  the  privy  council,  it,  along  with  Cargill’s  Covenant,  and  some 
other  papers,  were  solemnly  burnt  at  the  market  cross  of  Edinburgh,  the  magis- 
trates being  present  in  their  robes.  This  stupid  malignity  is  justly  censured  by 
Fountainhall,  one  of  their  own  party,  while,  at  the  same  time,  he  betrays  his  hatred 
of  the  Solemn  League.  “ Some  wondered,”  says  he,  “ to  see  their  policy  in  reviving 
the  memory  of  so  old  and  buried  a legend  as  the  Solemn  League  was  (which  was 
burnt  in  1661,  before) ; and  set  people  now  a-work  to  buy  it,  and  read  it.  And  for 
Cargill's  ridiculous  Covenant,  they  had,  about  a twelve-month  before  this,  caused 
print  it.  though  that  was  only  in  contempt  of  it.”— -Fountainhall’s  Historical  Notices 
of  Scottish  Affairs,  vol.  i.,  p.  346. 


286 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


greedy-like  to  such  a lot  as  this,  but  still  thought  it  was  too  high 
for  me,  when  I saw  how  vile  I was ; but  now  the  Lord  hath 
made  that  Scripture  sweet  to  me,  Isaiah  vi.,  6,  7,  ‘ Then  flew 
one  of  the  seraphims  unto  me,  having  a live  coal  in  his  hand — 
and  he  laid  it  upon  my  mouth,  and  said,  Lo  ! this  hath  touched  thy 
lips  ; and  thine  iniquity  is  taken  away,  and  thy  sin  purged.’  Oh, 
how  great  is  his  love  to  me,  that  hath  brought  me  forth  to  testify 
against  the  abominations  of  the  times,  and  kept  me  from  fainting 
hitherto,  and  hath  made  me  to  rejoice  in  him.  Now  I bless  the 
Lord  that  ever  he  gave  me  a life  to  lay  down  for  him.  Now 
farewell  all  creature  comforts  ; farewell,  sweet  Bible  ; farewell 
ye  real  friends  in  Christ;  farewell  faith  and  hope;  farewell 
prayers,  and  all  duties  ; farewell,  sun  and  moon.  Within  a little 
I shall  be  free  from  sin,  and  all  sorrows  that  follow  thereon. 
Welcome,  everlasting  enjoyment  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost,  everlasting  love,  everlasting  joy,  everlasting  life  !”* 

According  to  her  sentence,  she  was  conducted,  on  the  26th  of 
January,  to  the  Grassmarket  to  be  executed.  An  immense  crowd 
assembled  to  witness  the  scene.  Marion  Hervey  suffered  along 
with  her.  Five  women  of  bad  fame  were  also  executed  at  the 
same  time,  for  the  murder  of  their  illegitimate  children.! 

On  coming  to  the  scaffold,  she  sung  the  eighty-fourth  psalm,  to 
the  tune  called  “ The  Martyrs,”  the  melody  most  frequently  used 
by  the  suffering  covenanters  in  singing  their  psalms,  as  in  some 
parts  of  Scotland  has  been  handed  down  by  a rude  rhyme  : — 

‘ This  is  the  tone  the  martyrs  sang, 

When  at  the  gallows-tree  they  stood, 

When  they  were  gaen  to  die, 

Their  God  to  glorifie." 

She  next  read  the  sixteenth  chapter  of  Mark ; after  which  she 
desired  to  pray  at  the  place  where  she  then  stood  ; but  the  provost 
took  her  away  to  the  foot  of  the  ladder,  and  there  she  engaged  in 
prayer.  In  this  her  last  trying  hour,  God,  in  whom  she  trusted, 
did  not  fail  to  sustain  her  spirit,  and  carry  her  unscathed  through 
the  fires  of  martyrdom.  The  greatness  of  her  peace,  and  cour- 

* Cloud  of  Witnesses,  pp.  93,  94. 

t “17  and  18  January,  1681.  At  the  criminal  court,  one  Sibilla  Bell  and  her 
mother  are  sentenced  to  Ido  hanged,  for  murdering  and  strangling  a child  born  by 
the  said  Sibilla,  in  adultery.  Item,  three  other  women  are  condemned  for  the  same 
crime  committed  bj^  them  on  their  bastards;  which  sentences  were  accordingly  put 
to  execution  the  26th  of  January,  thereafter,  on  them.  As  also  two  other  women 
were  then  hanged  for  their  opinions  and  principles,  disowning  the  king  and  the  gov- 
ernment, and  adhering  to  Cameron’s  treasonable  Declaration.  They  called  one  of 
them  Isabel  Alison,  from  Perth,  and  the  other  [Marion]  Harvey,  brought  from  Bor- 
rovwtounness.” — Fountainhall’s  Historical  Notices,  vol.  i.,  p.  281. 


ISABEL  ALISON. 


287 


age,  and  joy,  was  such  as  strong  faith,  in  a reconciled  God,  and 
the  unclouded  hope  of  heaven,  could  alone  impart.  Only  one 
thing  seemed  to  wound  her  delicacy,  and  that  was  the  circum- 
stance of  her  being  exposed  in  the  company  of  those  five  unhap- 
py females,  who  had  murdered  their  own  offspring.  But  this  in- 
dignity she  bore  with  meekness  and  patience,  on  reflecting  that 
her  Savior  was  crucified  between  two  thieves,  as  if  he  had  been 
the  most  criminal  of  the  three.  She  addressed  a few  sentences 
to  the  spectators  ; and  her  last  words  were,  “ Farewell,  all  crea- 
ted comforts ; farewell,  sweet  Bible,  in  which  I delighted  most, 
and  which  has  been  sweet  to  me  since  I came  to  prison ; fare- 
well, Christian  acquaintances.  Now  into  thy  hands  I commit  my 
spirit.  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost!”  On  her  uttering  these 
words,  the  hangman  threw  her  over,  and  her  spirit  returned  to 
her  God  and  Savior  to  receive  the  martyr’s  crown. 

We  are  not  informed  where  her  body  was  buried;  but  there 
is  little  doubt  that  it  was  disgracefully  cast  into  that  spot,  in  the 
Greyfriars’  churchyard,  which  was  the  receptacle  of  the  dead 
bodies  of  malefactors,  and  into  which  the  dead  bodies  of  most  of 
the  martyrs  who  suffered  death  at  Edinburgh  during  the  reigns 
of  Charles  II.  and  James  VII.,  were  consigned.  The  ignopiiny 
which  once  attached  to  this  spot,  as  the  burial-place  appropriated 
for  condemned  rpbbers  and  murderers,  has  been  obliterated  by 
the  sacredness  with  which,  as  the  last  resting-place  of  nearly  a 
hundred  martyrs,  it  is  now  invested.  A large  and  handsome 
tombstone  has  been  erected  in  honor  of  their  memory,  bearing  the 
following  inscription 

“ Halt,  passenger,  take  heed  what  you  do  see, 

This  tomb  doth  show  for  what  some  men  did  die, 

Here  lies  interred  the  dust  of  those  who  stood 
’Gainst  perjury,  resisting  unto  blood  ; 

Adhering  to  the  Covenants,  and  laws 
Establishing  the  same  ; which  was  the  cause 
. Their  lives  were  sacrificed  unto  the  lust 

Of  prelates  abjured.  Though  here  their  dust 
Lies  mixt  with  murderers  and  other  crew, 

Whom  justice  justly  did  to  death  pursue  : 

But  as  for  them  no  cause  was  to  be  found 
Worthy  of  death,  but  only  they  were  sound. 

Constant,  and  steadfast ; zealous,  witnessing, 

For  the  prerogatives  of  Christ,  their  King. 

Which  truths  were  sealed  by  famous  Guthrie’s  head ; 

And  all  along  to  Mr.  Renwick’s  blood. 

They  did  endure  the  wrath  of  enemies, 

Reproaches,  torments,  deaths,  and  injuries. 

But  yet  they  ’re  those,  who  from  such  troubles  came, 

And  now  triumph  in  glory  with  the  Lamb. 

“From  May  27th,  1061,  when  the  noble  Marquis  of  Argyle  was  beheaded,  to  the 
17th  of  February,  1688,  that  Mr.  James  Ren  wick  suffered ; were,  one  way  or  olb«r, 


288 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


murdered  and  destroyed  for  the  same  cause,  about  eighteen  thousand,  of  whom 
were  execute  at  Edinburgh  about  an  Hundred  of  Noblemen,  Gentlemen,  Minis- 
ters, and  Others  ; noble  martyrs  for  Jesus  Christ.  The  most  of  them  lie  here. 

“ For  a particular  account  of  the  cause  and  manner  of  their  sufferings,  see  The 
Cloud  of  Witnesses,  Crookshank’s  and  Defoe's  Histories." 

Beueath  this  inscription  is  sculptured  an  open  bible,  with  the 
following  passages  of  scripture  engraven  : — 

“ Rev.  vi.  9,  10,  11. — And  when  he  had  opened  the  fifth  seal,  I saw  under  the  altar 
the  souls  of  them  that  were  slain  for  the  word  of  God,  and  for  the  testimony  which 
they  held  : And  they  cried  with  a loud  voice,  saying,  How  long,  O Lord,  holy  and 
true,  dost  thou  not  judge  and  avenge  our  blood  on  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth? 
And  white  robes  were  given  unto  every  one  of  them ; and  it  was  said  unto  them, 
that  they  should  rest  yet  for  a little  season,  until  their  fellow-servants  also  and  their 
brethren,  that  should  be  killed  as  they  were  should  be  fulfilled. 

“Rev.  vii.  14. — These  are  they  which  came  out  of  great  tribulation,  and  have 
washed  their  robes,  and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb. 

“ Chap.  2d,  10. — Be  thou  faithful  unto  death,  and  I will  give  thee  a crown  of  life." 


MARION  HARVEY. 

Marion  Harvey  was  a servant  girl  in  Borrowstounness.  Her 
father,  who  lived  in  that  village,  appears  to  have  been  a man  of 
piety,  and  had  sworn  the  National  Covenant  and  Solemn  League. 
It  may,  therefore,  be  presumed  that  she  had  received  a religious 
education.  But  it  was  not  till  she  had  passed  her  fourteenth 
or  fifteenth  year  that  her  attention  was  turned,  in  good  earnest, 
to  divine  and  eternal  things.  Previous  to  that  period,  thoughtless 
about  God  and  her  own  spiritual  interests,  she  had  conducted 
herself  like  thoughtless  young  people ; yea,  she  tells  us  that,  in 
the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth  year  of  her  age,  she  was  a “ blasphemer 
and  sabbath-breaker.”  About  this  time,  however,  a decided 
change  took  place  upon  her  character.  Attracted  by  curiosity, 
or  following  the  crowd,  she  began  ;to  attend  meetings  for  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  in  the  fields,  which  had  become  very 
frequent  in  the  part  of  the  country  where  she  lived,  as  well  as 
extremely  popular — thousands  flocking  to  hear  the  persecuted 
ministers.  These  conventicles,  as  they  were  nicknamed,  though 
denounced  by  the  government,  and  prohibited,  under  the  penalty 
of  death  to  the  minister,  and  severe  penalties  - to  the  hearers, 
were  accompanied  with  signal  tokens  of  the  Divine  approbation  ; 
and  among  the  many  thousands  who,  by  their  instrumentality, 
wtvre  brought  to  the  saving  knowledge  of  Christ,  was  the  subject 


MARION  HARVEY. 


289 


of  tliis  notice.  The  change  produced  upon  her  character  soon 
became  apparent  in  her  life.  She  left  off  hearing  the  curates, 
whose  ministry  she  had  formerly  attended  without  scruple  ; she 
venerated  the  name  of  God,  which  she  had  formerly  blasphemed  ; 
she  sanctified  the  sabbath,  which  she  had  formerly  desecrated ; 
and  she  delighted  in  reading  the  Bible,  which  she  had  formerly 
neglected  and  undervalued.  Among  the  ministers  whom  she 
heard  at  these  field  meetings  were,  Mr.  John  Welsh,  Mr.  Archi- 
bald Riddell,  Mr,  Donald  Cargill,  and  Mr.  Richard  Cameron. 
In  her  examination  before  the  privy  council,  she  expresses  how 
much  spiritual  profit  she  had  derived  from  the  sermons  of  these 
worthy  men ; and  in  her  dying  testimony  she  says,  “ I bless  the 
Lord  that  ever  I heard  Mr.  Cargill,  that  faithful  servant  of  Jesus 
Christ : I bless  the  Lord  that  ever  I heard  Mr.  Richard  Cameron  ; 
my  soul  has  been  refreshed  with  the  hearing  of  him,  particularly 
at  a communion  in  Garrick,  on  these  words,  in  Psalm  Ixxxv.  8 ; 
‘ The  Lord  will  speak  peace  unto  his  people,  and  to  his  saints  , 
but  let  them  not  turn  again  to  folly.’  ” The  two  last  of  these 
ministers,  as  we  have  seen  before,  (p.  273),  separated  from  the 
rest  of  the  presbyterian  ministers,  forming  a party  by  themselves, 
and  to  this  party  Marion  Harvey  was  a zealous  adherent. 

Like  many  others  in  those  unhappy  times,  she  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  government,  through  the  malignity  and  avarice  of 
a base  informer.  One  of  this  class,  named  James  Henderson, 
who  lived  in  North  Queensferry,  and  who  was  habit  and  repute 
in  such  infamous^ transactions,  had  informed  against  her,*  for 
which  he  receiv.ed  a sum  of  money ; and  when  going  out  of  Ed- 
inburgh, to  hear  a sermon  to  be  preached  in  the  fields  by  one  of 
the  persecuted  ministers,  she  was  apprehended  on  the  road,  by 
Sergeant  Warrock  and  a party  of  soldiers,  who,  it  seems,  having, 
by  ensnaring  questions,  extorted  from  her  a confession  that  she 
had  attended  field  conventicles,  carried  her  to  Edinburgh,  where 
she  was  imprisoned.  Such  was  the  first  step  of  the  bloody  pro- 
ceedings of  which  this  humble  female,  who  was  only  about  twenty 
years  of  age,  was  made  the  victim.  She  was  next  brought 
before  the  lords  of  his  majesty’s  privy  council,  who  had  nothing 
with  which  to  charge  her  except  that  she  had  attended  field  con- 
venticles ; and  no  evidence  that  she  had  committed  even  this 
offence  except  her  own  confession.  To  have  inflicted  upon  her, 
in  the  absence  of  other  evidence,  the  penalties  of  the  laws  then 

* This  person  was,  as  Marion  Harvey  expresses  it,  “ the  Judas  that  sold  Archi- 
bald Stewart  and  Mr.  Skene  to  the  bloody  soldiers,  for  so  much  money.”  Both 
these  men  suifered  martyrdom. 


25 


290 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


in  force  against  such  as  were  guilty  of  being  present  at  field 
conventicles,  would  have  been  flagrantly  unjust.  But  to  rest 
satisfied  with  the  perpetration  of  even  this  injustice  was  too 
lenient  a course  for  the  privy  council.  Apparently  with  the 
design  of  extracting  from  her  self-criminating  confessions,  on 
the  ground  of  which  they  might  take  away  her  life,  they  pro- 
ceeded to  subject  her  to  the  same  style  of  inquisitorial  examina- 
tion to  which  they  had  subjected  Isabel  Alison  ; and  they  succeeded 
in  drawing  from  her  an  expression  of  her  approbation  of  Cargill’s 
Covenant,  of  the  Sanquhar  Declaration,  of  the  killing  of  A.rch- 
bishop  Sharp,  in  so  far  as  the  Lord  raised  up  instruments  for 
that  purpose,  and  of  the  Torwood  Excommunication.  Her 
examination  was  conducted  with  the  same  inhuman  levity  as 
that  of  Isabel  Alison.  One  of  the  counsellors  scornfully  said  to 
her,  that  “ a rock,  a cod,  and  bobbins,  would  set  her  better  than 
these  debates;”  and  “yet,”  says  Wodrow,  “they  cast  them  up 
to  her,  and  murder  her  upon  them.”  Such  was  the  brutality  of 
Dalziel  that  he  threatened  her  with  the  boot,  as  she  mentions  in 
her  dying  testimony.  Her  answers  to  the  artful  questions  of  the 
privy  council  show  that,  like  her  fellow-martyr,  Isabel  Alison, 
she  had  adopted  some  extreme  opinions  ; but  her  behavior  was 
dignified,  compared  with  that  of  her  lordly  inquisitors. 

The  following  are  the  questions  put  to  her  by  the  privy  coun- 
cil, and  the  answers  she  returned  : — 

P.  C.  “ How  long  is  it  since  you  saw  Mr.  Donald  Cargill?” 

M.  H.  “ I can  not  tell  particularly  when  I saAV  him.” 

P.  C.  “ Did  you  see  him  within  these  three  months  ?” 

M.  H.  “It  may  be  I have.” 

P.  C.  “ Do  you  own  his  covenant?” 

M.  H.  “ What  covenant  ?” 

Then  they  read  it  to  her,  and  she  said  she  owned  it. 

P.  C.  “ Do  you  own  the  Sanquhar  Declaration  ?” 

M.  H.  “Yes.” 

P.  C.  “ Do  you  own  these  to  be  lawful  ?” 

M.  H.  “Yes;  because  they  are  according  to  the  Scriptures 
and  our  covenants,  which  ye  swore  yourselves^,  and  my  father 
swore  them.” 

P.  C.  “ Yea ; but  the  covenant  does  not  bind  you  to  deny  the 
king’s  authority.” 

M.  H.  “ So  long  as  the  king  held  the  truths  of  God,  which 
he  swore,  we  were  obliged  to  own  him  ; bnt  when  he  broke  his 
oath,  and  robbed  Christ  of  his  kingly  rights,  which  do  not  belong 
to  him,  we  were  bound  to  disown  him  and  you  also.” 


MARION  HARA^EY. 


291 


P.  C.  “ Do  you  know  what  you  say?” 

M.  H.  ‘‘Yes.” 

P.  C.  “ W ere  you  ever  mad  ?” 

M.  H.  “ I have  all  the  wit  that  ever  God  gave  me ; did  you 
see  any  mad  act  in  me  ?” 

P.  C.  “ Where  was  you  born  ?” 

M.  H.  “ In  Borrowstounness.” 

P.  C.  “ What  was  your  occupation  there  ?” 

M.  H.  “ I served.” 

P.  C.  “ Did  you  serve  the  woman  that  gave  Mr.  Donald  Car- 
gill quarters  ?” 

M.  H.  “ That  is  a question  which  I will  not  answer.” 

P.  C.  “ Who  grounded  you  in  these  principles  ?” 

M.  H.  “ Christ,  by  his  Word.” 

P.  C.  “ Did  not  ministers  ground  you  in  these  ?” 

M.  H.  “ When  the  ministers  preached  the  Word,  the  Spirit  of 
God  backed  and  confirmed  it  to  me.” 

P.  C.  “ Did  you  ever  see  Mr.  John  Welsh?” 

M.  H.  “ Yes  ; my  soul  hath  been  refreshed  by  hearing  him.” 

P.  C.  “ Have  you  ever  heard  Mr.  Archibald  Riddell?” 

M.  H.  “ Yes  ; and  I bless  the  Lord  that  ever  I heard  him.” 

P.  C.  “ Did  ever  they  preach  to  take  up  arms  against  the 
king  ?” 

M.  H.  “I  have  heard  them  preach  to  defend  the  gospel,  which 
we  are  all  sworn  to  do.”* 

P.  C.  “ Did  you  ever  swear  to  Mr.  Donald  Cargill’s  Cove- 
nant ?” 

M.  H.  “ No  ; but  we  are  bound  to  own  it.” 

P.  C.  “ Did  you  ever  hear  Mr.  George  Johnston  ?”t 

M.  H.  “ 1 am  not  concerned  with  him ; I would  not  hear  him, 
for  he  is  joined  in  a confederacy  with  yourselves.” 

^ Though  Welsh.  Riddell,  and  Blackadder,  did  not  join  with  the  Cameronians  in 
disowning  thfe  authority  of  the  government,  yet  as  ihe  government  not  only  refused 
to  protect  the  noncojiformists  in  hearing  the  gospel,  but  sent  out  the  military  to  dis- 
perse, apprehend,  and  murder  them,  when  so  engaged  in  the  fields,  they  asserted 
the  lawfulness  of  carrying  arms  to  field  conventicles  for  self-defence,  on  the  principle 
of  the  law  of  self-preservation,  which  is  antecedent  to  all  human  laws,  and  which  is 
ill  truth  a law  of  God. 

t Mr.  George  Johnston  was,  at  the  Re,storalion,  minister  of  Newbottle,  from  which 
he  w^as  ejected  for  nonconformity,  by  the  act  of  the  privy  council  at  Glasgow,  1662. 
He  was  a noted  field-preacher,  but  had  accepted  of  the  third  indulgence  granted  in 
the  middle  of  the  year  1679.  This  accounts  for  the  somewhat  disrespectful  tone  in 
which  Marion  Harvey  speaks  concerning  him  in  her  answer  to  this  question.  The 
disaffection  between  the  Cameronians,  to  which  party  she  belonged,  and  those  who 
had  accepted  the  indulgence,  was  in  truth  about  equally  cordial  on  both  sides:  both 
parties,  as  is  almost  universally  the  case  in  religious  controversy,  acted  very  much 
m the  lex-talionis  principle — “ If  you  disrespect  me,  I’ll  disrespect  you.” 


292 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


P.  C.  “ Did  you  hear  the  excommunication  at  the  Torwood?”. 

M.  H.  “ No  ; I could  not  win  to  it.’^ 

P,  C.  “ Do  you  approve  of  it?” 

M.  H.  “ Yes  ” 

P.  C.  “ Do  you  approve  of  the  killing  the  Lord  St.  Andrews  ?” 

M.  H.  “ In  so  far  as  the  Lord  raised  up  instruments  to  execute 
his  just  judgments  upon  him,  I have  nothing  to  say  against  it ; 
for  he  was  a perjured  wretch,  and  a betrayer  of  the  kirk  of  Scot- 
land !” 

P.  C.  What  age  are  you  of?” 

M.  H.  ‘‘I  can  not  tell.” 

They  said  among  themselves  that  she  would  be  about  twenty 
years  of  age,  and  began  to  regret  her  case,  and  said  to  her,  “ Will 
you  cast  away  [your]  self  so  ?” 

M.  H.  “ I love  my  life  as  well  as  any  of  you  do,  but  will  not 
redeem  it  upon  sinful  terms  ; for  Christ  says,  ‘ He  that  seeks  to 
save  his  life,  shall  lose  it.’  ” 

Then  one  of  them  asked  when  the  jury  should  sit ; and  some 
other  of  them  answered,  “ On  Monday.” 

P.  C.  “ Can  you  write  ?” 

M.  H.  ‘‘  Yes.” 

P.  C.  “ Will  you  subscribe  what  you  have  said  ?” 

M.  H.  ‘‘No.” 

They  bade  the  clerk  set  down  that  she  could  write,  but  refused 
to  subscribe. 

P.  C.  “ Do  you  desire  to  converse  with  one  of  your  minis- 
ters ?” 

M.  H.  “ What  ministers  ?” 

P.  C.  “ Mr.  Riddell.” 

M.  H.  “I  will  have  none  of  your  ministers.”* 

For  the  opinions  expressed  in  these  answers,  the  government 
were  resolved  to  take  the  life  of  this  inoffensive  girl.  But  as  the 
confession  of  her  holding  such  opinions  could  only  become  judi- 
cial and  be  used  in  judgment  against  her  when  made  before  the 
lords  of  justiciary,  she  was  next,  in  conformity  with  the  usual 
practice,  brought  before  them  on  the  6th  of  December,  1680,  to 
undergo  a similar  examination.  On  her  being  brought  before 
them  and  examined,  the  answers  she  gave  were  substantially  the 
same  as  those  she  had  given  when  examined  before  the  privy 
council,  and  the  following  is  the  substance  of  her  answers,  as 
drawn  up  by  the  clerk  of  the  justiciary  court,  and  subscribed  by 
the  lords  as  her  confession  : — 

Cloud  of  Witnesses,  pp.  95-97. 


MARION  HARVEY. 


293 


^‘Edinburgh,  December'  6,  1680. 

In  presence  of  the  lords,  justice-clerk,  and  commissioners  of 
justiciary,  sitting  in  judgment,  compeared  Marion  Harvey,  pris- 
oner, and  being  examined,  adheres  to  the  fourth  article  of  the 
‘ Fanatics’  New  Covenant,’  the  same  being  read  to  her,  and  dis- 
owns the  king  and  his  authority,  and  the  authority  of  the  lords 
of  justiciary,  and  adheres  and  abides  at  the  treasonable  Declara- 
tion emitted  at  Sanquhar,  and  approves  of  the  same  ; and  says  it 
was  lawful  to  kill  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  when  the  Lord 
raised  up  instruments  for  that  effect,  and  that  he  was  as  misera- 
ble and  perjured  a wretch  as  ever  betrayed  the  kirk  of  Scotland  : 
declares  that  ministers  brought  them  up  to  these  principles,  and 
now  they  have  left  them  ; and  that  she  has  heard  Mr.  John  Welsh 
and  Mr.  Riddell  preach  up  these  principles  she  now  owns,  and 
blesses  God  slie  ever  heard  them  preach  so,  for  her  soul  has  been 
refreshed  by  them : she  approves  of  Mr.  Cargill’s  excommunica- 
ting the  king ; declares  she  can  write,  but  refuses  to  sign  the 
same.  ( Sic  suhscribitur) — 

“ Maitland, 

“ David  Balfour, 

“ Ja.  Falconer, 

“ Roger  Hog.”* 

On  the  sole  ground  of  this  confession,  an  indictment  was  drawn 
up  against  her,  and  she  was  brought  to  trial  on  the  17th  of  Janu- 
ary, 1681.  Tried  on  the  same  indictment  with  Isabel  Alison, 
she  was  charged  with  the  same  crimes  (for  which  see  page  281), 
with  the  addition  that  she  had  “ most  treasonably  approved  of  the 
execrable  excommunication  used  by  Mr.  Donald  Cargill  against 
his  sacred  sovereign  at  Torwood,  upon  the  — ^ — day  of  [Sep- 
tember] last,  and  likewise  owned  and  approved  of  the  killing 
of  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  as  lawful,  declaring  that  he 
was  as  miserable  a wretch  as  ever  betrayed  the  kirk  of  Scot- 
land.” 

Her  indictment  having  been  read,  she  was  asked  if  she 
pleaded  guilty  to  the  charges  it  contained,  to  which  she  answered 
in  the  affirmative.  They  next  successively  read  the  ‘‘  Sanquhar 
Declaration,”  and  the  ‘‘  Queensferry  Paper,”  asking  her  at  the 
close  of  the  reading  of  each  paper  if  she  owned  it,  to  which  she 
answered  that  she  did.  She  then  protested  before  the  court  that 
they  had  nothing  to  say  against  her  as  to  matter  of  fact,  but  only 
that  she  owned  Christ  and  his  truth ; to  which  they  made  no  re- 

* Records  of  the  Jasticiary  Court. 

25* 


294 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


ply,  but  called  the  jury,  who,  as  we  have  seen  before,  showed 
considerable  reluctance  to  appear.*  She  offered  no  objections 
to  any  of  the  jury,  but,  on  their  taking  their  places,  she  ad- 
dressed them  in  these  words  : “ Now  beware  what  you  are 
doing,  for  they  have  nothing  to  say  against  me,  but  only  for  own- 
ing Jesus  Christ  and  his  persecuted  truths  ; for  you  will  get  my 
blood  upon  your  heads.” 

The  court  then  proceeded  with  the  evidence  against  her.  But 
the  only  proof  which  the  prosecutor,  his  majesty’s  advocate,  could 
adduce,  was  her  own  confession  before  the  lords  of  justiciary. 
This  confession,  as  they  had  taken  it  down,  was  accordingly 
read ; and  being  asked  if  she  adhered  to  it,  she  objected  to  the 
clause  which  represented  her  as  having  said  that  the  ministers 
had  taught  her  these  principles,  observing  that  \^hat  she  said 
was,  that  it  was  Christ  by  his  Word  who  taught  her ; but  she  ad- 
hered to  the  rest  of  her  confession  as  it  was  read.  The  king’s 
advocate  then  addressed  the  jury.  He  told  them,  as  has  been 
stated  before,!  that  much  dealing  had  been  employed  with  her 
and  Isabel  Alison,  and  that  ministers  had  been  sent  to  them  in 
prison,  to  endeavor,  if  possible,  to  reclaim  them,  but  that  every 
effort  had  proved  unavailing.  “ We  are  not  concerned  with  you 
and  your  ministers,”  said  Marion,  sharply.  The  advocate,  turn- 
ing to  her,  replied,  “ It  is  not  for  religion  that  we  are  pursuing 
you,  but  for  treason.” — ‘‘  It  is  for  religion  that  you  are  pursuing 
me,”  she  instantly  retorted  ; and  I am  of  the  same  religion  that 
you  are  all  sworn  to  be  of.  I am  a true  presbyterian  in  my  judg- 
ment.” On  the  conclusion  of  the  advocate's  address,  the  jury 
retired  for  consultation,  but  soon  returned  to  court  and  delivered 
their  verdict,  unanimously  finding  Marion  Harvey  ‘‘  guilty,  con- 
form to  her  confession  of  adherence  to  the  fourth  article  of  the 
‘ Fanatics’  New  Covenant,’  and  to  the  ‘ Declaration  at  Sanquhar,’ 
and  to  the  ‘ Bond  of  Combination  ;’  but  as  actor  and  receipter  of 
rebels,  they  find  it  not  proven.” 

The  lords  delayed  the  pronouncing  of  the  sentence  upon  her 
till  Friday,  at  twelve  o’clock,  being  the  21st  of  the  current  month. 
On  the  minute  of  the  day  being  read,  she  said,  “ I charge  you 
before  the  tribunal  of  God,  as  ye  shall  answer  there  ! for  ye  have 
nothing  to  say  against  me  but  for  my  owning  the  persecuted  gos- 
pel.” 

On  the  21st,  she  was  again  brought  before  the  court  to  receive 
her  sentence,  which  was,  that  she  “ be  taken  to  the  Grassmarket 
of  Edinburgh  upon  Wednesday  next,  the  26th  instant,  betwixt 
* See  notice  of  Isabel  Alison,  pp.  282,  283.  t Ibid. 


MARION  HARVEY. 


295 


two  and  four  o’clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  there  to  be  hanged  on 
a gibbet,  till  she  be  dead,  and  all  her  lands,  heritages,  goods,  and 
gear  whatsoinever,  to  be  escheat  and  inbrought  to  our  sovereign 
lord’s  use,  which  was  pronounced  for  doom.”* 

During  the  whble  of  the  proceedings  now  detailed,  Marion 
betrayed  no  symptoms  of  wavering,  hesitation,  or  timidity ; and 
now  when  her  days  on  earth  were  numbered — when  she  had 
only  five  brief  days  to  live — she  maintained  to  the  last  her 
Christian  fortitude.  The  testimony  of  her  conscience,  that  she 
had  done  nothing  worthy  of  death,  and  that  she  was  in  reality 
doomed  to  die  on  the  scaffold  for  her  adherence  to  the  truths  of 
Christ,  was  to  her  a source  of  great  satisfaction.  In  her  dying 
testimony,  which  she  left  behind  her,  dated  ‘‘  from  the  tolbooth 
of  Edinburgh,  the  Woman  House,  on  the  east  side  of  the  prison. 
January  21st,  1681,”  she  begins  as  follows  : “ Christian  friends 
and  acquaintances — I being  to  lay  down  my  life  on  Wednesday 
next,  January  26,  I thought  fit  to  let  it  be  known  to  the  world 
wherefore  I lay  down  my  life,  and  to  let  it  be  seen  that  I die  not 
as  a fool,  or  an  evil-doer,  or  a busy-body,  in  other  men’s  matters. 
No  ; it  is  for  adhering  to  the  truths  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  avow- 
ing him  to  be  king  in  Zion,  and  head  of  his  church ; and  the 
testimony  against  the  ungodly  laws  of  men,  and  their  robbing 
Christ  of  his  rights,  and  usurping  his  prerogative  royal,  wdiich  I 
durst  not  but  testify  against.” 

Nor  was  she  deprived  of  those  heavenly  consolations  which 
have  so  often  sustained  the  soul  of  the  martyr,  and  made  him 
triumph  over  death.  The  presence  of  a reconciled  God,  and  the 
peace  and  comfort  which  he  spoke  to  her  soul,  divested  death 
of  its  terrors,  and  inspired  her  with  a holy  willingness  and  cheer- 
fulness to  surrender  her  life,  in  testimony  of  her  love  to  him  and  his 
cause.  “ I desire,”  says  she,  in  the  same  document,  to  bless 

and  magnify  the  Lord  for  my  lot,  and  may  say,  he  hath  brought 

me  to  the  wilderness  to  allure  me  there,  and  speak  comfortably 
to  my  soul.  It  was  but  little  of  him  I knew  when  I came  to 

prison  ; but  now  he  has  said  to  me,  because  he  lives,  I shall 

live  also.  And  he  has  told  me,  ‘ I am  he  that  blotteth  out  thine 
iniquity,  for  my  own  name’s  sake.’  Kind  has  he  been  to  me 
since  he  brought  me  out  to  witness  for  him.  I have  never 
sought  anything  from  him  that  was  for  his  glory,  since  I came 
to  prison,  but  he  granted  me  my  desire.  For  the  most  part  I 
have  found  him  in  everything  that  hath  come  in  my  way,  order- 
ing it  himself  for  his  own  glory.  And  now  I bless  him  that 

* Records  of  the  Justiciary  Court.  Cloud  of  Witnesses,  p.  97. 


296 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


thoughts  of  death  are  not  terrible  to  me.  He  hath  made  me  as 
willing  to  lay  down  my  life  for  him  as  ever  I was  willing  to  live 
in  the  world.  And  now,  ye  that  are  his  witnesses,  be  not  afraid 
to  venture  on  the  cross  of  Christ,  for  his  yoke  is  easy,  and  his 
burden  light.  For  many  times  I have  been  made  to  think 
strange  what  made  folks  cast  at  the  cross  of  Christ,  that  hath 
been  so  light  to  me  that  I have  found  no  burden  of  it  at  all ; he 
bore  me  and  it  both.  Now  let  not  the  frowns  of  men,  nor  their 

flatteries,  put  you  from  your  duty It  is  my  grief  that  I 

have  not  been  more  faithful  for  my  master,  Christ.  All  his  deal- 
ings with  me  have  been  in  love  and  in  mercy.  His  corrections 
have  been  all  in  love  and  free  grace.  Oh,  free  love ! I may 
say  I am  a brand  plucked  out  of  the  fire  ; I am  a limb  of  the 
devil  plucked  out  from  his  fireside.  Oh!  I am  made  to  wonder 
and  admire  at  his  condescending  love.”  And  she  concludes 
with  these  words  : “ Now  farewell,  lovely  and  sweet  Scriptures, 
which  were  aye  my  comfort  in  the  midst  of  all  my  difficulties  ! 
farewell,  faith ! farewell,  hope  ! farewell,  wanderers,  who  have 
been  comfortable  to  my  soul,  in  the  hearing  of  them  commend 
Christ’s  love!  Farewell,  brethren  ! farewell,  sisters  ! farewell, 
Christian  acquaintances!  farewell,  sun,  moon,  and  stars!  And 
now  welcome,  my  lovely  and  heartsome  Christ  Jesus,  into  whose 
hands  I commit  my  spirit  throughout  all  eternity.  I mav  say, 
few  and  evil  have  the  days  of  the  years  of  my  pilgrimage  been, 
I being  about  twenty  years  of  age.”* 

There  is  one  thing  in  the  dying  testimony  of  this  female  which 
we  could  wish  had  been  modified,  and  that  is  the  paragraph  in 
which  she  leaves  her  blood  upon  the  tyrant  on  the  throne,  upon 
the  duke  of  York,  who  was  sitting  in  the  council  the  first  day  on 
which  she  was  examined,  and  upon  all  others  who  were  con- 
cerned in  her  death,  whom  she  particularly  names.  This  was 
done  by  others  of  the.Cameronian  martyrs  ; and  it  was  done,  we 
believe,  not  in  a spirit  of  revenge,  but  simply  to  impress,  if  pos- 
sible, upon  their  murderers  a conviction  of  their  guilt,  and  to 
awaken  them  to  repentance. t In  proof  of  this,  we  may  quote 
the  testimony  of  a very  intelligent  gentleman,  who  had  opportu- 
nities of  being  very  much  among  the  Cameronian  party  who  suf- 
fered between  the  years  1680  and  1685,  and  who  conversed 
with  most,  if  not  all,  who  suffered  till  August,  1685 — that  of  Mr. 
Gray,  of  Chryston ; and  his  testimony  is  the  more  valuable  from 

* Cloud  of  Witnesses,  pp.  98-101. 

t The  words  of  Jeremiah,  in  his  address  to  the  princes  of  Judah  (chap.  xxvi.  15), 
have  been  adduced  in  vindication  of  these  martyrs  on  this  head. 

21 


MARION  HARVEY. 


297 


h:s  having  belonged,  not  to  the  Cameronian,  but  to  the  moderate 
presbyterians.  In  a letter  to  Wodrow,  he  says,  “ As  to  their 
leaving  their  blood -upon  their  enemies  in  general,  or  upon  par- 
ticular persons  accessory  to  their  trouble,  I could  never  under- 
stand that  they  meant  more  by  it  than  the  fastening  a conviction 
upon  a brutish,  persecuting  generation,  who  vainly  justified 
themselves  as  acting  by  law,  and  inferred  that  not  they,  but  the 
legislature,  were  answerable,  if  any  injustice  was  done.”*  This 
explains  the  ground  upon  which  Marion  Harvey  and  others  left 
their  blood  upon  their  persecutors,  and  it  amply  vindicates  them 
from  acting  under  the  impulse  of  a revengeful  spirit.  Something 
more,  however,  is  required  of  the  Christian  than  the  mere  ab- 
sence of  revenge  toward  his  enemies  ; he  is  bound  from  the 
heart  to  forgive  them.  We  do  not  affirm  that  this  female  martyr, 
and  other  Cameronian  martyrs,  did  not  forgive  their  persecutors. 
We  are  persuaded  of  the  contrary.  They  knew  the  New  Tes- 
tament too  well  not  to  know  that  the  forgiveness  of  enemies  is 
an  imperative  Christian  duty,  and  they  possessed  too  much  of 
the  Christian  spirit  not  to  exercise  it.  But  they  erred  in  not 
being  sufficiently  forward  to  express  this  feeling,  and  in  not  giv- 
ing it  prominence  in  their  dying  testimonies.  If,  instead  of  the 
clause  to  which  we  are  now  objecting,  they  had  substituted  a 
clause  cordially  forgiving  their  persecutors,  it  would  have  been 
more  in  harmony  with  the  precepts  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
it  would  have  been  more  like  Jesus,  who,  on  the  cross,  showed 
how  intensely  forgiving  his  heart  was,  when  he  prayed  his  holy 
Father  to  forgive  his  murderers,  and  urged  in  their  behalf  the 
only  extenuating  plea  of  which  their  crime  admitted — “ Father, 
forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do.”  Nor  is  it  un- 
worthy of  notice,  that  had  they  taken  this  course,  they  would 
have  deprived  their  enemies  of  an  occasion  which  they  eagerly 
laid  hold  on,  and  over  which  they  gloated,  of  charging  them, 
falsely,  indeed,  but  still  with  some  degree  of  color,  of  being  bait- 
ed into  savageness  and  stubbornness,  of  being  actuated  by  vindic- 
tive feelings,  and  of  mistaking  these  feelings  for  emotions  of  piety. 

On  the  day  of  her  execution,  Marion  not  only  retained  her  com- 
posure, but  experienced  the  utmost  joy  in  the  anticipation  of  fu- 
ture felicity.  When  coming  out  of  the  tolbooth  door  to  go  to  the 
council-house,  whence  she  was  to  be  conducted  to  the  place  of 
execution,  she  said,  to  some  friends  attending  her,  in  a tone  of 
heavenly  joy  and  ecstacy,  at  once  surprising  and  delightful  to 
them,  “ Behold,  I hear  my  beloved  saying  unto  me.  Arise  my 
Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  214. 


298 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


love,  my  fair  one,  and  come  away.”  In  the  council-house,  a base 
and  heartless  attempt  was  made,  by  Bishop  Paterson,  to  disturb 
her  tranquillity,  and  the  tranquillity  of  her  fellow-sufferer  in  the 
same  cause,  Isabel  Alison.  This  man,  who  had  an  active  hand 
in  bringing  them  to  the  scaffold,  and  who,  with  a meanness  and 
wanton  cruelty  worthy  of  a persecutor,  had  brought  a curate 
with  him  to  the  council-house,  for  the  express  purpose  of  annoy- 
ing them,  said  to  Marion  Harvey,  “ Marion,  you  said  you  would 
never  hear  a curate,  now  you  shall  be  forced  to  hear  one  upon 
which  he  called  on  the  curate  to  pray.  This  cruel  insult,  offered 
to  them  when  placed  in  circumstances  calculated  to  excite  the 
deepest  commiseration,  was  met  by  the  sufferers  with  becoming 
spirit.  They  made  ho  reply  to  the  bishop,  but  as  soon  as  the 
curate  began  to  pray,  Marion  said  to  her  fellow-martyr,  “ Come, 
Isabel,  let  us  sing  the  twenty-third  psalm,”  which  they  accord- 
ingly did — Marion  repeating  the  psalm  line  by  line  without  book 
— which  drowned  the  curate’s  voice,  and  confounded  both  him 
and  the  bishop.  When  they  were  brought  to  the  scaffold,  a sec- 
ond attempt  was  made  to  harass  their  feelings  and  disturb  their 
composure  in  their  last  moments,  by  one  of  the  prelatic  curates 
of  the  city,  who  came  to  pray  with  the  five  women  condemned 
to  be  executed  at  the  same  time  for  child-murder.  This  man, 
who  appears  to  have  had  neither  correct  views  of  religion,  nor 
humane  feelings,  flattered  these  five  murderers  with  the  hope  of 
heaven,  though  they  had  given  no  evidences  of  repentance,  while 
he  vehemently  railed  on  our  two  martyrs,  and  remorselessly  told 
them  that  they  were  on  the  road  to  damnation.  But  they  re- 
mained unmoved  ; “ the  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  under- 
standing, kept  their  hearts  and  minds  through  Christ  Jesus.”  On 
the  scaffold,  Marion  sung  the  eighty-fourth  psalm,  and  read  the 
third  chapter  of  Malachi ; after  which  she  shortly  addressed  the 
vast  crowd  of  spectators  “ I am  come  here  to-day,”  she  said, 
‘‘  for  avowing  Christ  to  be  the  head  of  his  church,  and  king  in 
Zion.  O seek  him,  sirs  ! seek  him,  and  ye  shall  find  him  ; I 
sought  him  and  found  him  ; I held  him  and  would  not  let  him  go.” 
Then  she  briefly  narrated  the  manner  in  which  she  was  appre- 
hended, and  the  leading  questions  put  to  her  by  the  privy  coun- 
cil, with  the  answers  she  returned.  “ They  asked  me  if  I ad- 
hered to  the  papers  gotten  at  the  ferry  ? I said  I did  own  them, 
and  all  the  rest  of  Christ’s  truths.  If  I would  have  denied  any 
of  them,  my  life  was  in  my  offer  ; but  I durst  not  do  it,  no,  not 
for  my  soul.  Ere  I wanted  an  hour  of  his  presence,  I had  rather 
die  ten  deaths.  I durst  not  speak  against  him,  lest  I should  have 


MARION  HARVEY. 


299 


sinned  against  God.  I adhere  to  the  Bible  and  Confession  of 
Faith,  Catechisms,  and  Covenants,  which  are  according  to  this 
Bible.”  But,  in  her  dying  speech,  she  chiedy  spoke  of  God’s 
love  to  her,  and  in  commendation  of  free  grace.  “ Much  of  the 
Lord’s  presence,”  said  she,  “ have  I enjoyed  in  prison ; and  now 
I bless  the  Lord  the  snare  is  broken,  and  we  are  escaped.” 
When  she  came  to  the  foot  of  the  ladder,  she  engaged  in  pray- 
er ; and,  on  going  up  the  ladder,  she  exclaimed,  “ O my  fair  one, 
my  lovely  one,  come  away and  sitting  down  upon  it,  she  said, 
‘‘  I am  not  come  here  for  murder,  for  they  have  no  matter  of  fact 
to  charge  me  with,  but  only  my  judgment.  I am  about  twenty 
years  of  age  ; at  fourteen  or  fifteen  I was  a hearer  of  the  curates, 
and  indulged ; and  while  I was  a hearer  of  these,  I was  a blas- 
phemer and  sabbath-breaker,  and  a chapter  of  the  Bible  was  a 
burden  to  me  ; but  since  I heard  this  persecuted  gospel,  I durst 
not  blaspheme  nor  break  the  sabbath,  and  the  Bible  became  my 
delight.”  These  were  her  last  words  ; for  on  her  having  uttered 
them,  the  hangman,  at  the  orders  of  the  provost,  cast  her  over. 
Her  body,  as  a mark  of  reprobation,  was  buried,  it  is  probable, 
in  the  Greyfriars’  churchyard,  Edinburgh,  along  with  the  body 
of  her  fellow-martyr,  Isabel  Alison,*  in  the  spot  appropriated  as 
a burying-place  for  the  most  flagrant  criminals  ; but,  whatever  in- 
dignities were  put  upon  her  mortal  part,  her  spirit,  brought  out 
of  great  tribulation,  was,  doubtless,  put  in  possession  of  that  ex- 
ceeding great  reward  reserved  for  those  who  “ overcome  by  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb,  and  by  the  word  of  their  testimony,  and  who 
love  not  their  lives  unto  the  death.” 

* The  following  notices  of  Marion  Harvey  and  Isabel  Alison,  written  by  a con- 
temporary belonging  to  the  government  party,  may  be  interesting  to  the  reader  : 

26th  January,  1681.  There  were  hanged  at  Edinburgh  two  women  of  ordinary 
rank,  for  their  uttering  treasonable  words,  and  other  principles  and  opinions  con- 
trary to  all  our  government;  the  one  was  named  Janet  [Isabel]  Alison,  a Perth 
woman,  the  other  [Marion]  Harvey,  from  Borrow stounness  ; they  were  of  Came- 
ron’s faction,  bigot  and  sworn  enemies  to  the  king  and  the  bishops;  of  .the  same 
stamp  with  Rathillet,  Skene,  Stewart,  and  Potter;  of  whom  supra,  p.  4,  et  seq.. 
where  we  debate  how  far  men  (for  women  are  scarce  to  be  honored  with  that  mar- 
tyrdom, as  they  think  it)  are  to  be  punished  capitally  for  their  bare  perverse  judg- 
ment without  actif]g.  Some  thought  the  threatening  to  drown  them  privately  in  the 
North  Loch,  without  giving  them  the  credit  of  a public  suffering,  would  have  more 
effectually  reclaimed  them  nor  any  arguments  which  were  used ; and  the  bring- 
ing them  to  a scaffoM  but  disseminates  the  infection.  However,  the  women  proved 
very  obstinate,  and  fjr  all  the  pains  taken,  would  not  once  acknowledge  the  king 
to  be  their  lawful  prince,  but  called  him  a perjured  bloody  man.  At  the  stage,  one 
of  them  told  so  long  as  she  followed  and  heard  the  curates,  she  was  a swearer,  sab- 
bath-breaker, and  with  much  aversion  read  the  Scriptures,  but  found  much  joy  upon 
her  spirit  since  she  followed  the  conventicle-preachers  There  were  five  other  mis- 
erable women  executed  with  them,  for  infant-murder.  See  with  what  wonderful 
patience  most  execrable  heretics  suffer,  in  Baker^s  Chronicle,  in  the  reign  of  King 
Henry  II,  p.  58,  and  of  Henry  III.,  p.  89.’’ — Fountainhall’s  Hist.  Ob.,  pp.  26,  27. 


300 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


HELEN  JOHNSTON, 

LADY  GRADEN. 

Helen  Johnston  was  the  daughter  of  the  well-known  Sir 
Archibald  Johnston,  Lord  Warriston,  who  acted  so  prominent  a 
part  in  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  transactions  of  his  day,  and 
who.  at  last  fell  a martyr  to  the  cause  of  civil  and  religious  free- 
dom. Lord  Warriston  was  not  less  distinguished  for  personal 
'piety  than  for  public  patriotism.  An  anecdote,  which  strikingly 
illustrates  how  completely,  in  the  exercise  of  prayer,  his  mind 
was  abstracted  from  surrounding  objects,  and  concentrated  on  the 
great  object  of  religious  worship,  has  been  preserved  by  Wod- 
row.  “ Mrs.  Lilias  Stewart,”  says  that  indefatigable  memorial- 
ist, “ tells  me  that  my  Lord  Warriston  was  very  frequently  in 
her  father’s  house.  Sir  James  Stewart’s ; and  when  he  came  be- 
fore dinner,  he  [Sir  James]  usually  desired  him  to  pray  in  the 
family,  and  he  made  no  more  ceremony  to  do  it  than  one  minis- 
ter would  do  in  another’s  house.  That  it  was  remarked  of  him, 
that  in  prayer  he  was  the  most  staid,  and  swallowed  up  in  the 
work,  of  any  man  in  his  time.  He  heard  or  noticed  nothing 
when  praying.  One  day  in  his  family,  his  lady  being  indisposed, 
she  fell  into  a swarff,*  in  the  room  beside  him,  and  continued 
some  time  in  it ; and  the  servants  observing  [it],  lifted  her  up, 
and  laid  her  in  bed.  All  this  was  done  beside  him,  and  he  knew 
nothing  of  it  till  all  was  over  and  duty  ended.”!  Like  the  mar- 
quis of  Argyll,  he  may  be  said  to  have  fallen  a victim  to  the  re- 
venge of  Charles  IL,  who  never  forgave  him  for  the  fidelity  with 
which,  on  one  occasion,  he  reproved  him  for  his  vices.  Writing 
in  January,  1713,  Wodrow  says  : “ My  author  [Mr.  James  Stir- 
ling, minister  of  Barony  parish,  Glasgow],  has  it  from  Mr.  Oli- 
phant,  who  was  my  Lord  Warriston’s  chaplain  at  the  time,  that 
one  day  he  told  Mr.  Oliphant  he  was  going  to  use  freedom  with 
the  king.  Mr.  Oliphant  dissuaded  him  from  it,  but  he  took  his 
cloak  about  him  and  went  away,  and  did  use  freedom  with  him. 
The  king  seemed  to  take  all  well,  and  gave  him  very  good  words, 
calling  him  ‘ Good  Lord  Warriston,  but  bore  a rooted  grudge  at 
him  after  that,  and  prosecuted  it  to  his  death.”!  His  enemies^ 
like  bloodhounds,  dogged  his  footsteps  on  the  continent,  and  sue 

* That  is,  a swoon  or  fainting-fit. 

t Wodrow's  Analecta,  vol.  ii.,  p.  145.  J Ibid.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  145. 


LADY  GRADEN. 


301 


ceeding  their  object,  brought  him  home,  to  be  tried,  condemned, 
and  executed  as  a traitor.  “ His  natural  temper  was  just,  gene- 
rous, self-denying  ; insomuch  that  he  left  behind  him  but  a very 
small  provision  for  a family  of  thirteen  children,  though  for  many 
years  he  had  been  intrusted  with  the  whole  government  of  Scot- 
land.”* 

Thus  the  subject  of  this  notice  enjoyed  the  inestimable  bles- 
sing of  a sound  Christian  education,  and  of  a holy  example  under 
her  father’s  roof.  From  her  cradle,  she  had  been  surrounded 
with  the  genial  influences  of  piety,  as  well  as  trained  to  the  love 
of  liberty.  With  the  principles^of  the  second  reformation  church, 
all  her  feelings  and  early  associations  were  inseparably  linked. 
The  summary  overthrow  of  the  presbyterian  church  by  the  gov- 
ernment of  Charles  II.,  and  the  grinding  oppression  by  which  it 
was  attempted  to  force  the  consciences  of  men  and  women  to  act 
in  matters  of  religion  in  conformity  with  the  wishes  of  the  mon- 
arch, she  could  not  then,  with  such  impressions  and  sentiments, 
but  regard  with  aversion  and  distrust.  And  this  aversion  and 
distrust  must  have  been  aggravated  from  the  relentless  cruelty 
with  which,  from  the  moment  of  the  restoration,  her  father  was 
persecuted,  till  he  was  put- to  death  as  a traitor  on  the  scaflbld. 

In  the  summer  of  1659,  Miss  Johnston  was  married  to  Mr. 
George  Hume  or  Home,  proprietor  of  an  estate  called  Graden, 
in  the  south  of  Scotland.!  Hence,  according  to  the  courtesy  of 
those  times,  he  was  generally  called  Graden,  and  his  wife  Lady 
Graden.  Their  marriage  contract  is  dated  10th  May,  1659.  In 
this  contract,  made  with  consent  of  several  persons  therein  speci- 
fied on  both  sides,  Mr.  Hume,  “ in  contemplation  of  ftie  marriage 
then  contracted,  bound  and  obliged  himself,  his  heirs,  executors, 
and  successors,  to  provide  and  secure  the  said  Helen  Johnston, 
his  future  spouse,  during  all  the  days  of  her  lifetime  (in  case  she 
should  survive  him),  in  the  sum  of  two  thousand  merks  Scots j: 
yearly,  free  of  all  burdens  whatsoever,  and  that  out  of  the  first 
and  readiest  of  his  forlunes.”|| 

Life  of  Bishop  Burnet,  by  Iiis  Son,  in  Burnet’s  History  of  His  Own  Times,  vol. 
vi.,  p.  235.  The  bishop's  mother  was  sister  to  Lord  W arriston.  His  father  was  an 
efjiscopalian,  “ but  his  motlier,  who  was  very  eminent  for  her  piety  and  virtue,  was 
a warm  zealot  for  the  presbyterian  discipline;  her  education  that  way  had  been 
very  strict.” — Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  ii.,  p.  145. 

t In  Acts  of  Scottish  Parliament,  vol.  vi.,  p.  85,  he  is  designated  “ an  heritor  of  the 
parish  of  Earlston.” 

t That  is,  about  111/,  sterling. 

11  Commissary  Records  of  Edinburgh,  16th  December,  1691.  Mr.  Hume  was  a 
man  of  very  considerable  wealth.  At  the  time  of  his  death,  the  debts  owing  to  him 
were  121,302/.  5s.  \0d.  Scots  ; and  his  free  gear,  the  debts  due  by  himself  being  de- 
ducted, was  105,302/.  Scots. 


26 


302 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


Mr.  Hume,  like  his  wife,  was  a warm  supporter  of  the  princi- 
ples of  the  covenanters,  and  also  suffered  in  their  defence.  In 
1678,  being  in  Northumberland,  he  was  made  prisoner  in  Crock- 
ome,  a village  upon  the  English  border,  by  a party  of  English 
soldiers  who  were  in  search  of  Scottish  nonconformists,  several 
of  whom  had  taken  shelter  from  persecution  in  Northumberland. 
He  was  carried  first  to  Lord  Hume,  and  thence  to  Hume  castle. 
His  apprehension  was  the  occasion  of  the  scuffle  in  which  Thomas 
Ker  of  Heyhope  (whose  elegy  was  written  by  Colonel  William 
Cleland,  and  is  inserted  in  Naphtali),  was  killed  by  Colonel 
Struthers’  party.*  How  long  he  was  kept  prisoner  is  uncertain. 

We,  however,  find  him  among  the  insurgents  at  Bothwell 
bridge,  in  June,  1679.t  His  name  appears  in  a list  of  persons 
who  had  been  “ in  the  late  rebellion,”  contained  in  a proclama- 
tion of  the  privy  council,  dated  June  26,  discharging  all  his  ma- 
jesty’s subjects,  whether  men  or  women,  to  assist,  harbor,  reset, 
correspond  with,  hide,  or  conceal  the  said  rebels  and  traitors, 
under  the  pain  of  treason. He  did  not  long  survive,  having 
died  in  October  that  year.|| 

It  was  not  till  1684,  when  nearly  twenty-four  years  of  misrule 
and  oppression  had  passed  over  our  ill-fated  country,  that  we 
meet  with  the  name  of  Lady  Graden  as  a sufferer  in  the  cause 
of  presbytery.  But  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  she  had 
not  at  an  earlier  period  become  obnoxious  to  the  government,  on 
account  of  her  religious  principles.  The  severity  with  which 
she  was  then  treated,  seems  rather  like  the  punishment  inflicted 
on  an  old  offender,  than  the  punishment  inflicted  on  one  who  had 
offended  offly  for  the  first  time.  The  primary  instrument  of  her 
oppression  was  Henry  Ker,  of  Graden,  who,  in  1684,  held  the 
office  of  sheriff-depute  of  Teviotdale,  and  who  recklessly  im- 
posed the  most  exorbitant  fines  on  such  gentlemen  and  ladies  in 
his  bounds  as  patronized  the  cause  of  nonconformity. § By  this 

See  Appendix,  No.  VII.  f M'Crie’s  Memoirs  of  Veitcb,  &c.,  p.  463 

t Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  ll.i 

II  Commissary  Records  of  Edinburgh,  16th  December,  1691. 

^ Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iv..  p.  52.  So  reckless  was  l»e  in  imposing  fines,  that 
even  the  government,  rapacious  as  it  was,  found  it  necessary,  from  the  complaints 
made  against  him,  to  institute  inquiries  as  to  his  proceedings.  On  the  7th  of  No- 
vember, 1684,  the  privy  council  ordained  one  of  their  clerks,  Mr.  Colin  M'Kenzie, 
to  w^rite  to  him  the  following  letter,  summoning  him  to  appear  before  them  : “ Sir, 
there  having  been  several  suspensions,  diligences,  and  petitions,  given  into  the  coun- 
cil, by  persons  fined  by  you  as  sheriff-depute  of  Roxburgh,  and  the  council  finding 
it  necessary,  before  they  proceed  to  consider  thereof,  that  you  be  present  to  vindi- 
cate your  procedure,  there  being  very  much  alleged  against  the  legality  thereof,  and 
which  they  have  reason  the  rather  to  suspect,  since  you,  being  cited  to  have  com- 
peared before  them,  have  neglected  so  to  do ; and  therefore  they  have  commanded 
me  to  require  you,  in  their  name,  to  attend  them  upon  the  first  Thursday  of  Decern- 


LADY  GRADEN. 


303 


unscrupulous  man  she  was  fined  in  twenty-six  thousand  and  odd 
pounds  Scots,*  as  we  learn  from  the  report  of  the  committee  for 
public  affairs  .given  in  to  the  council,  September  10,  1684.  In 
that  report,  it  is  also  stated  that  he  had  fined  Lady  Greenhead,t  in 
the  sum  of  sixteen  thousand  and  odd  pounds  Scots, | but  that  the 
committee  found  reason  to  sist  execution  as  to  her.||  The  coun- 
cil approved  of  the  report.^  The  decreet  against  Lady  Graden 
not  having  been  preserved,  we  are  unable  precisely  to  state  the 
charges  against  her  which  it  contained  ; but  we  can  not  be  far 
from  the  truth  in  supposing  that,  like  the  decreets  against  ladies 
in  similar  circumstances,  it  charged  her  with  deserting  the  pub- 
lic ordinances  in  her  own  parish  church,  with  haunting  and  fre- 
quenting rebellious  field-conventicles,  with  harboring  and  reset- 
ting rebels,  &c.,  to  the  great  scandal  of  religion  and  contempt  of 
the  government.  As  the  fine  imposed  upon  her,  and  with  the 
approbation  of  the  government,  was  a very  heavy  one,. much  heav- 
ier than  that  imposed  upon  Lady  Greenhead,  or  indeed  upon  any 
other  person  in  that  part  of  the  country,  it  is  evident  that  she 
was  a marked  person  ; and  there  is  little  doubt  that  this  severity 
was  prompted  by  the  malignant  hatred  which  these  wicked  rulers 
cherished  toward  the  memory  of  her  father.  As  James  VI.  be- 
lieved, that  in  the  whole  race  of  the  Knoxes  and  Welshes  there 
lived  the  germ  of  enmity  to  bishops,  so  the  persecutors,  during 
the  reigns  of  his  grandsons,  seem  to  have  equally  believed,  that 
the  essence  of  presbytery  had  been  so  concentrated  in  Archi- 
bald Johnston  of  Warriston,  as  to  taint  with  an  inveterate  hostil- 
ity to  prelacy  the  whole  of  his  race. 

But  our  chief  object  in  introducing  this  lady  to  the  notice  of 
the  reader  is,  to  give  a specimen  of  the  Christian  sympathy  and 
heroism  which  ladies  often  displayed  in  those  trying  times,  under 
the  sufferings  of  their  near  and  dear  relatives,  in  the  cause  of  re- 

ber  next  peremptory,  and  to  bring  along  with  you  the  decreets  and  sentences  pro- 
nounced by  you  against  persons  within  your  shire  guilty  of  irregularities  and  dis- 
orders. and  the  grounds  and  warrants  thereof;  as  also  your  procurator-fiscal,  clerk, 
and  officers  of  court,  or  any  other  executors  of  your  summons,  precepts,  or  warn- 
ings, to  be  considered  by  the  council,  and  herein  you  are  not  to  fail,  as  you  will  be 
answerable  at  your  peril.  1 am  your  affectionate  friend  and  sevyant  f Sic.  sub.J, 
Colin  M‘Kenzie.’* — Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council. 

That  is,  2,1  GG/.  13.s  id.  and  odds,  sterling. 

t The  lady  of  Sir  William  Ker  of  Greenhead. 

t That  is,  1,333/.  6.s.  8d.  and  odds,  sterling. 

II  Execution  was  sisted  as  to  her  in  consequence  of  a petition  which  her  husband, 
Sir  William  Ker,  presented  to  the  council,  desiring  that,  as  “ the  decreet  was  pro- 
nounced in  absence,  and  that  the  sum  is  very  exorbitant,  his  lady  might  be  reponed 
to  her  oath,  and  execution,  in  the  meantime,  sisted.’' — Register  of  Acts  of  Priw 
Council,  10th  September,  1684. 

§ Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  52. 


304 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


ligion  and  liberty.  The  part  which  she  acted  toward  Robert 
Baillie  of  Jerviswood,  who  was  her  cousin-german^  and  also  her 
brother-in-law,*  during  his  sickness  when  in  prison,  and  at  the 
time  of  his  trial  and  execution,  is  worthy  of  all  praise.  Robert 
Baillie  of  Jerviswood,  than  whom  the  martyrology  of  the  perse- 
cution does  not  embrace  a more  excellent  man,  was  descended 
on  the  mother’s  side  from  our  illustrious  reformer  John  Knox,  his 
mother  having  been  the  grand-daughter  of  the  reformer.!  From 
boyhood  he  had  experienced  the  power  of  religion.  He  had 
been  heard  to  say  that  God  had  begun  to  work  upon  him  when 
he  was  about  ten  years  of  age,  and  that  Christ  crucified  had  been 
his  daily  study  and  constant  delight.  To  great  natural  parts, 
extensive  information,  and  dignity  of  manner,  he  added  gentle- 
ness of  disposition  and  calm  benevolence,  combined  with  warm 
zeal  for  the  protestant  religion,  and  incorruptible  integrity .J  By 
the  unprincipled  government  of  his  day  he  had  all  along  been 
regarded  with  suspicion  and  distrust,  and  at  last  they  found  a 
pretext  for  taking  away  his  life.  Being  in  London  at  the  time 
of  the  discovery  of  the  Rye-House  Plot  in  1683,||  he  and  several 
other  Scotch  gentlemen  at  London  were  made  prisoners  on  suspi- 
cion of  being  concerned  in  that  plot.  Baillie  had  indeed  attended 
some  meetings  held  in  London,  by  several  English  and  Scotch 
patriots  of  rank  and  influence,  for  the  purpose  of  concerting  meas- 
ures for  delivering  their  country  from  tyranny,  and  preventing 
the  duke  of  York,  who  was  a professed  papist,  from  succeeding 
to  the  throne  in  the  event  of  his  brother’s  death  ; but  he  never 

Baillie’s  mother  was  sister  to  Lord  Warriston,  and  he  was  married  to  one  of 
Lord  Warriston's  daughters.  His  wife  was  a lady  worthy  of  her  lineage.  Some 
ascribed  his  disaffection  to  the  government  to  her  influence  over  him.  “ His  mar- 
rying Johnston  of  Warriston’s  daughter/' says  Fountainhall,  “ first  alienated  his 
mind  from  the  government.” — (Historical  Notices,  vol.  ii , p.  594.)  It  may  here  be 
stated  that  Baillie  had  a sister  who  was  married  to  the  celebrated  Mr.  Andrew 
Gray,  son  to  Sir  William  Gray,  lord-provost  of  Edinburgh,  and  minister  of  the  Outer 
High  church,  Glasgow.  Mr.  Gray  was  licensed  1653,  ordained  on  the  3d  of  No- 
vember that  year,  and  died  in  January,  1656.  His  relict  afterward  became  the  wife 
of  Mr.  George  Hutchison,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh  at  the  restoration,  and 
afterward  indulged  minister  at  Irvine.  Baillie  had  another  sister  who  was  mar- 
ried to  Mr.  James  Kirkton,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh  after  the  revolution. — 
Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  i.,  p.  168. 

t M‘Crie’s  Life  of  Knox,  fifth  edition,  vol.  ii , pp.  356,  357. 

I Wodrow  says  that  he  “had  a sort  of  majesty  in  his  face  and  stateliness  in  his 
carriage.” — Analecta,  vol.  iii.,  p.  78. 

II  He  had  gone  up  to  London  on  the  business  of  the  Carolina  settlement.  A num- 
ber of  Scottish  gentlemen  having,  in  consequence  of  the  intolerable  oppression  at 
home,  projected  a settlement  in  Carolina  in  America,  where  such  of  their  country- 
men as  chose  to  emigrate  might  enjoy  that  freedom  of  conscience  which  there  was 
no  prospect  of  their  enjoying  in  Scotland,  they  sent  commissioners  to  London,  among 
whom  was  Baillie,  in  the  close  of  the  year  1682,  to  deal  with  the  government  about 
that  matter. 


LADY  GRADEN. 


S05 


dreamed  of  accomplishing  this  end,  desirable  as  it  was,  by  mur- 
dering the  king  and  the  duke  of  York,  which  was  falsely  given 
out  by  the  government  as  the  great  object  of  these  meetings.* 
He  and  his  Scotch  fellow-prisonersf  were,  in  the  end  of  October, 

1683,  sent  down  from  London  to  Scotland;  and  on  their  arrival 
at  Leith,  they  were  conducted  to  the  tolbooth  of  Edinburgh.  Bail- 
lie  continued  to  languish  in  prison,  till,  being  tried  for  high-trea- 
son, he  was  brought  in  guilty  by  a packed  jury,  and  condemned 
to  the  gallows. 

It  was  during  these,  his  last  sufferings,  that  Lady  Graden  dis- 
played, in  the  part  which  she  acted  toward  Baillie,  whom  she 
highly  respected  and  honored  for  the  excellence  of  his  Christian 
character,  that  active  sympathy,  that  self-sacrificing  spirit,  and 
that  noble  heroism,  to  which  we  have  referred.  For  a consider- 
able period  previous  to  his  martyrdom,  his  rigorous  imprisonment 
had  so  undermined  his  health  that  he  was,  to  all  appearance,  in 
a dying  condition.  In  these  circumstances,  he  found  in  this 
lady  a friend  indeed.  To  her  he  owed  that  solace  and  support 
which  kind  and  unremitting  attentions  administer  under  the  pain, 
anxiety,  languor,  and  fears,  which  always  attend  sickness  ; and 
which  would  especially  attend  it  in  his  case,  when  he  was  con- 
fined to  a prison,  and  when  his  life  was  thirsted  after  by  the  un- 
relenting malice  of  his  enemies.  It  was  about  the  month  of  July, 

1684,  that  his  illness  assumed  a dangerous  form.  To  his  lady 
and  friends  this  was  a cause  of  great  anxiety  and  alarm.  It 
would  have  been  highly  gratifying  to  her  had  she  been  allowed 
to  remove  him  for  a time  to  her  own  chambers  ; but,  though  dis- 
ease was  apparently  hurrying  him  to  the  grave,  she  could  not 
prevail  upon  the  lords  of  the  privy  council  to  listen  so  far  to  the 
voice  of  pity  as  relentingly  to  allow  him  to  be  removed  from 
prison ; for  they  were  determined  not  to  forego  their  hold  of  a 
victim  whom  they  so  deeply  hated,  and  whose  valuable  estate 
would,  when  forfeited,  be  so  rich  a prize.  Being  then  unable  to 
obtain  for  him  a temporary  release,  she  was  very  desirous  that, 
in  his  present  condition,  he  might  have  a constant  attendant  in 
prison.  Gladly  would  she  have  devoted  herself,  with  all  the 

Baillie  and  bis  Scotch  friends  had,  in  fact,  broken  off  all  connection  with  the 
English  conspirators  before  the  conspiracy  was  discovered,  convinced  that  from  the 
want  ot  unity  ol  views,  spirit,  and  decision,  it  could  not  succeed ; nor  had  they  ever 
matured  any  plan  of  their  own. — Carstairs’  State  Papers,  pp.  10-14. 

t These  were — Sir  Hugh  Campbell  of  Cesnock,  and  Sir  George  Campbell,  bis 
son  ; Sir  William  Muir  of  Row^allan,  and  William  Muir,  his  son;  John  Crawford 
of  Crawfordland  ; William  Fairly  of  Bruntsfield  ; Alexander  Monro  of  Beancrofts; 
William  Spence ; Robert  Murray  ; John  Hepburn;  William  Carstairs. — Register 
of  Acts  of  Privy  Council,  5th  November,  1G83. 

26* 


806 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


tenderness  of  her  faithful  heart,  to  the  office  of  nursing  him  in  his 
sickness ; and  her  presence  would  doubtless  have  been  more 
agreeable  to  him  than  that  of  any  other  friend.  But  for  this  of- 
fice the  infirm  state  of  her  own  health  unfitted  her.  Her  sister, 
Lady  Graden,  however,  a woman  of  active  habits,  and  of  a gen- 
erous and  exalted  mind,  engaged,  with  the  greatest  pleasure, 
should  the  privy  council  grant  permission,  to  attend  the  sick-bed 
of  her  cousin  and  brother-in-law.  Accordingly,  she  presented  a 
petition  to  the  council,  praying  that  this  permission  might  be 
granted  her.  The  council,  upon  inquiry,  finding  that  Baillie  Avas 
dangerously  ill,  allowed  her,  in  answer  to  her  petition,  to  attend 
him,  on  condition  of  her  remaining  a close  prisoner  with  him. 
The  act  of  council  is  as  follows  : — 

‘‘Edinburgh,  Ai/grtst  14,  1684. 

“ The  lords  of  his  majesty’s  privy  council  having  considered 
an  address  made  by  Helen  Johnston,  Lady  Graden,  supplicating 
that  she  might  be  made  close  prisoner  with  the  laird  of  Jervis- 
wood,  to  wait  upon  him,  he  being  at  present  in  a sick  and  dan- 
gerous condition,  with  the  report  of  the  lord-present  of  the  ses- 
sion, and  justice-clerk,  who  were  ordered  to  visit  him,  bearing 
that  they  found  him  in  a very  dangerous  and  sickly  condition,  do 
alloAv  the  said  Lady  Graden  to  be  close  prisoner  with  the  said 
Jerviswood,  and  appoint  a macer  of  council  to  take  her  imme-' 
diately  to  that  room,  within  the  prison  of  Edinburgh  where  the 
said  Jerviswood  is  noAv  prisoner  ; and  appoint  the  keepers  of  the 
tolbooth,  before  she  enter  the  said  room,  to  take  narrow  inspec- 
tion that  she  have  no  letters  or  papers  upon  her  body,  and  if  she 
have,  that  they  secure  the  same  ; and  after  she  has  entered  the 
said  room,  ordain  the  foresaid  keepers  to  keep  her  close  prisoner 
therein,  in  the  same  way  and  manner  that  the  said  Jerviswood 
was  ordered  to  be  kept,  in  every  respect,  until  the  council  further 
order,  as  they  will  be  answerable  at  their  highest  peril.”* 

To  these  restrictions  Lady  Graden  gladly  submitted,  that  she 
might  minister  to  the  comfort  of  her  friend.  Over  his  sick-bed 
she  watched  with  the  most  affectionate  and  assiduous  care,  ad- 
ministering to  him  those  comforts  which  his  situation  required  ; 
and  nothing  which  warm  sympathy  and  overflowing  kindness 
could  suggest,  was  v/anting  to  alleviate  his  distress.  Lady  Jer- 
viswood, though  unable,  as  we  have  said,  from  the  delicate  state 
of  her  health,  to  undertake  the  entire  charge  of  attending  him, 
was  desirous  of  being  occasionally  alloAved  to  visit  him.  She 

Decreets  of  Privy  Council. 


LADY  GRADEN. 


307 


accordingly  presented  a petition  to  the  privy  council,  praying  that 
this  favor  might  be  granted  her  ; and  the  council,  at  their  meeting 
on  the  18th  of  August,  allow  her  to  have  access  to  her  husband 
with  any  of  the  physicians  who  are  to  visit  him,  and  to  stay  in 
the  room  with  him  so  long  as  the  physicians  stay,  and  no  longer, 
during  which  stay  she  is  not  to  utter  or  speak  anything  but  in 
audience  of  the  physicians  present.”*  It  would  appear  that, 
some  short  time  after,  she  was  allowed  to  remain  constantly  with 
him  in  the  prison,  subject  to  the  same  stringent  rules  as  her  lis- 
ter, Lady  Graden,  though  this  permission  continued  only  for  a 
brief  period. f 

While  thus  enjoying  the  society  of  his  wife  and  of  his  sister- 
in-law,  the  cup  of  Baillie’s  affliction  was  greatly  sweetened.  Not 
only  was  his  every  wish  anticipated,  and  his  sickness  alleviated 
by  the  gentle  language  and  engaging  offices  of  love,  but  his  inter- 
course with  these  beloved  friends  was,  from  the  congeniality  of 
their  minds,  sanctified  and  endeared  by  religion,  in  which  all  of 
them  sought  and  found  their  greatest  enjoyment,  and  their  most 
effectual  solace  under  all  their  afflictions.  His  confinement  and 
sickness  were  thus  deprived  of  more  than  half  their  bitterness, 
and,  surrounded  by  his  nearest  and  best-beloved  relations,  he  felt 
that  his  prison  was  in  some  measure  like  home.  But  his  sister- 
in-law  had  not  been  with  him  much  above  three  weeks,  and  his 
lady  not  so  long,  when  the  privy  council  issue  orders  for  their 
being  removed  from  him.  The  act  of  council  is  as  follows  : — 

“ Edinburgh,  lOth  September,  1684. 

‘‘  Whereas,  the  lords  of  his  majesty’s  privy  council  were  for- 
merly pleased  to  allow  Mr.  Robert  Baillie  of  Jerviswood’s  wife, 
and  the  Lady  Graden,  to  be  close  prisoners  in  the  room  with 
him,  he  being  then  under  some  indisposition  of  body,  they  have 
now  thought  fit  that  they  be  removed  from  him,  and  he  continued 
close  prisoner  by  himself  as  formerly  ; and  therefore  do  hereby 
require  the  keepers  of  the  tolbooth  of  Edinburgh,  forthwith  to 
remove  the  said  Lady  Jervis  wood  and  the  Lady  Graden  forth 
of  the  room  where  they  are  now  close  prisoners  with  the  said 
Jervis\vood,  and  to  keep  him  close  prisoner,  and  not  to  suffer 
them  or  any  other  person  to  have  access  to,  or  converse  with,  or 
speak  to  him,  till  further  order,  as  they  will  be  answerable. 

^ Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council. 

t On  the  30th  of  August,  the  council  also  allow^ed  Baillie’s  advocates  and  friends 
to  have  free  access  to  him  until  Thursday,  and  granted  warrants  to  the  keepers  of 
the  tolbooth  for  that  effect,  they  being  always  answerable  for  the  safe  custody  of  his 
person.— Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council.  t Ibid. 


308 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


On  the  removal  of  these  dear  friends,  Baillie  continued  alone 
in  prison  for  nearly  two  months.  His  recovery  had  bfeen  very 
partial,  and  from  the  want  of  their  kind  attentions,  and  as  the 
cold  weather  set  in,  his  bodily  illness  greatly  increased,  and  as- 
sumed so  dangerous  a form  as  to  render  it  indispensable  for  him 
to  have  a constant  attendant.  His  own  lady  would  again  wil- 
lingly have  shared  in  his  imprisonment  and  ministered  to  him ; 
but  the  infirm  state  of  her  health  rendered  it  impossible  for  her 
to  undergo  the  confinement  and  fatigue,  to  which,  in  the  perform- 
ance of  such  duties,  she  would  have  been  subjected.  But  her 
sister.  Lady  Graden,  was  ready  as  cheerfully  as  ever  to  supply 
her  place,  should  permission  be  granted  her  by  the  privy  council. 
Accordingly,  Lady  Jervis  wood  presented  a petition  to  the  coun- 
cil, ‘Gn  name  and  behalf  of  her  husband,  showing,  .that  the 
council  was  graciously  pleased,  upon  application  made  by  the 
supplicant,  to  allow  her  sister  [Lady  Graden]  to  wait  upon  her 
husband  in  regard  of  his  dangerous  and  sick  condition,  and  ever 
since  her  coming  from  him,  no  person  is  suffered  to  visit  or 
speak  to  him,  save  the  keeper  that  takes  in  his  necessaries,  and 
therefore  humbly  supplicating,  that,  in  consideration  of  the  prem- 
ises, and  of  the  supplicant’s  husband  being  so  tender  and  unwell 
that  he  can  not  rise  from  bed,  and  of  the  coldness  of  the  weather, 
and  other  things  that  attend  sickness  and  weakness,  the  council, 
out  of  their  clemency  and  tender  compassion,  would  allow  the 
supplicant’s  sister,  or  niece,  to  attend  him,  the  supplicant  herself 
being  so  tender  that  she  can  not.”  The  lords  of  council  having 
considered  this  petition  at  their  meeting  on  the  . 6th  of  November, 
“ allow  Helen  Johnston,  Lady  Graden,  the  petitioner’s  sister, 
to  be  made  close  prisoner  with  Jerviswood  for  waiting  on  him, 
he  being  very  valetudinary,  the  keepers  of  the  tolbooth  being 
always  answerable  for  their  safe  custody,  and  that  the  said  lady 
shall  not  go  out  of  the  room  where  the  said  Jerviswood  is  close 
prisoner,  without  order  from  the  council.”* 

Lady  Graden  now  continued  without  intermission  to  attend 
him  till  his  death.  And  not  only  by  her  presence  did  she  re- 
lieve the  tedious  hours  of  his  confinement,  hut  consoled  him 
under  his  sufferings,  by  suggesting  to  his  mind  the  promises  and 
hopes  of  the  gospel,  and  especially  by  reading  to  him  from  the 
Book  of  God  its  divine  lessons  of  instruction  and  comfort,  to 
which  the  dying  martyr  listened  with  that  intensity  of  interest 
w^hich  the  near  prospect  of  death  and  eternity  so  powerfully  tends 
to  inspire.  Nor,  though  those  days  and  nights  that  she  watched 
Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council. 

25 


LADY  GRADEN. 


309 


over  him  were  in  some  respects  days  and  nights  of  sadness,  could 
she  fail  to  be  comforted  and  edified  by  the  heavenly  spirit  which 
he  displayed — in  witnessing  the  patience  and  joy  with  which  he 
bore  his  afflictions,  in  the  certain  hope  of  having  them  more  than 
compensated  by  the  eternal  glories  of  a better  world. 

Lady  Graden  accompanied  Baillie  from  the  prison  to  the  bar 
on  the  day  of  his  trial,  which  was  on  the  23d  of  December ; and, 
taking  her  place  beside  him,  she  watched  over  him  during  the 
whole  of  the  trial,  which  lasted  from  eleven  o’clock  in  the  fore- 
noon till  past  midnight.  “ He  was  so  unwell  and  weak,”  says 
Wodrow,  “ that  when  he  was  in  the  panel,*  his  sister-in-law. 
Lady  Graden,  behooved  to  be  with  him  in  the  panel,  and  gave 
him  some  cordial  now  and  then  to  support  him.”t  To  the  length- 
ened proceedings  she  would  listen  with  painful  and  melancholy 
interest.  Sir  George  M‘Kenzie’s  “ most  bloody  and  severe 
speech”  to  the  jury,  as  Wodrow  characterizes  it,  would,  doubt- 
less, create  in  her  mind  more  poignant  sensations  than  anything 
else  she  heard  on  that  day  ; nor  can  we  well  describe  her  feelings 
when  he  cast  it  up  to  Baillie  as  a reproach — what  he  felt  to  be 
and  what  really  was  an  honor  to  him — that  he  was  the  nephew 
and  son-in-law  of  her  venerated  father.  Lord  Warriston.  The 
lord  advocate’s  speech  being  concluded,  and  Baillie  having  spoken 
a few  words,  his  great  weakness  rendering  him  unable  to  say 
much,  the  jury,  it  being  then  so  late,  were  ordered  to  bring  in 
their  verdict  to-morrow  by  nine  o’clock,  and  the  court  dismissed. 
Lady  Graden  accompanied  him  from  the  bar  to  the  prison,  where 
she  still  continued  to  watch  over  him  and  to  minister  to  his 
comfort. 

But  her  assiduous  and  soothing  attentions  to  him  she  had  not 
now  long  to  perform.  On  the  following  day,  about  ten  o’clock, 
being  brought  from  the  prison  to  the  bar  of  the  justiciary  court, 
he  was  sentenced  to  be  hanged  that  day  (Dec.  24)  at  the  market 
cross  of  Edinburgh,  between  two  and  four  o’clock  in  the  after- 
noon, and  his  head  to  be  cut  off,  and  his  body  to  be  quartered : 
his  head  to  be  affixed  upon  the  Nether  Bow  Port  of  Edinburgh  ; 
one  leg  to  be  affixed  on  the  tolbooth  of  Jedburgh  (where  the 
greatest  part  of  his  estate  lay) ; and  another  leg  to  be  affixed  on 
the  tolbooth  of  Lanark  (near  to  which  his  house  of  Jerviswood 
lay) ; another  member  to  be  affixed  on  the  tolbooth  of  Ayr  ; and 
another  on  the  tolbooth  of  Glasgow  ; his  name,  fame,  memory, 
and  honors,  to  be  extinct ; and  his  blood  to  be  tainted,  cfec.:]: 

* That  is,  “ in  the  dock,”  or  as  panel  at  the  bar.  t Wodrow’s  Anal.,  vol.  iii.,  p.78. 

t Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  iii , pp.  78-80.  Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  110. 


310 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


It  is  highly  probable  that  on  that  day,  as  on  the  day  of  the 
trial,  Lady  Graden  attended  him  to  the  court,  and  that,  with 
panting  breast  and  bitter  agony  of  spirit,  she  heard  the  sentence 
of  death  pronounced  upon  him.  She  returned  with  him  again  to 
the  prison,  resolved  to  minister  to  his  comfort,  as  far  as  in  her 
power,  to  the  last.  The  scene  through  which  she  had  now  to 
pass,  as  well  as  the  scenes  through  which  she  had  already 
passed,  would  have  been  too  much  for  many  female  minds. 
Their  fortitude  would  have  abandoned  them ; and,  robbed  of  all 
power  of  acting,  they  would  have  resigned  themselves^  to  the 
dominion  of  uncontrollable  anguish.  It  was  different  with  Lady 
Graden.  On  this  trying  occasion  she  was  greatly  supported. 
Her  friend  had  now  only  a few  hours  to  live  ; but  it  was  solacing 
to  her  to  witness  his  fortitude,  resignation,  and  heavenly  joy ; 
to  know  that,  though  feeble  in  body,  he  was  not  infirm  of  soul ; 
that  no  terror  was  upon  it that  there  was  no  faltering  of  his  in- 
ward strength,  but  that  his  trust  was  firm  in  God.  It  afforded 
her  satisfaction,  though  a painful  satisfaction,  to  listen  to  the  last 
prayers,  so  full  of  fervent  devotion  and  of  triumphant  faith,  that 
proceeded  from  his  dying  lips,  and  to  hear  him  give  expression 
to  the  heavenly  rapture  which  fdled  his  soul  in  prospect  of  eter- 
nity. “ When  he  was  brought  into  the  prison  [after  receiving  his 
sentence],  he  fell  over  into  the  bed,  where  he  broke  forth  into  a 
most  wonderful  prayer.  He  seemed  to  be  in  a rapture.  There 
seemed  to  be  a shining  majesty  in  his  face  ; the  tears  abundantly 
trickling  down  from  his  eyes.  He  spoke  like  one  in  heaven  ; 
he  showed  what  great  and  wonderful  joy  would  be  at  the  meeting 
of  the  saints  with  the  Lord,  and  with  one  another.  He  said  God 
had  begun  the  good  work  in  him  ; he  had  carried  it  on,  and  now 
he  was  putting  the  copestone  upon  it,  and  now  he  had  received 
a wonderful  cordial : that  within  a few  hours  he  would  be  inex- 
pressibly, beyond  conception,  well He  said  in  his 

prayer  that  he  was  to  be  made  a sacrifice ; he  prayed  it  might  be 
an  acceptable  sacrifice  to  God,  and  that  his  death  might  put  a 
merciful  stop  to  their  cruel  shedding  of  the  blood  of  his  people.”* 
To  such  utterances  as  these,  she  could  not  listen  without  being 
convinced  that  God  was  present  with  him  of  a truth ; that  the 
Divine  strength  was  made  perfect  in  his  weakness,  and  that  He, 
who  now  so  mercifully  sustained  him,  would  continue  to  sustain 
him  to  the  end. 

The  time  appointed  for  Baillie’s  execution  soon  arrived.  Owing 
to  his  sickness,  he  was  carried  in  a chair  to  the  scaffold.  On 
Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  iii , pp.  78-80. 


LADY  GRADEN. 


311 


coming  out  of  the  chair,  he  was  so  weak  as  to  be  unable,  without 
assistance,  to  go  up  the  ladder.  He  wore  his  night-gown.  Lady 
Graden  accompanied  him  from  the  prison  to  the  scaffold.  On 
their  way  to  it,  they  passed  the  house  of  her  father  ; and,  in  pas- 
sing it,  Baillie  looked  up  to  the  chamber  where  Lord  Warriston 
usually  sat,  and  a multitude  of  associations  connected  with  the 
past  vividly  rushing  into  his  mind,  he  said  to  her,  “ Many  a sweet 
day  and  night  with  God  had  your  now  glorified  father  in  that 
chamber.”  “ Yes,”  she  replied  ; and,  thinking  of  his  cruel  death, 
she  added,  ‘‘  Now  he  is  beyond  the  reach  of  all  suffering,  equally 
free  from  sin  and  sorrow ; and  the  same  grace  which  supported 
him  is  able  to  support  you.”  She  went  up  with  him  to  the  scaf- 
fold, and  stood  by  him  while  he  attempted  to  address  the  crowd 
of  spectators  ; which  he  no  sooner  began  to  do — My  faint  zeal 
for  the  protestant  religion  has  brought  me  to  this  end” — than  he 
was  interrupted  by  the  beating  of  the  drums  ; after  which  he  made 
no  farther  attempt  to  speak.  Previous  to  his  engaging  in  prayer 
and  being  thrown  over,  she  took  her  last  farewell  of  him,  which 
struck  to  the  inmost  feelings  of  her  soul  as  with  the  hand  of 
death.  The  last  adieu  of  a dying  friend,  even  when  he  dies 
upon  his  bed,  though  gratifying,  is  always  painful — agonizing  to 
the  survivors.  But  when  his  death  is  tragical  and  outwardly 
ignominious,  the  final  parting  is  still  more  overwhelming  to  the 
feelings.  After  Baillie  had  been  thrown  over,  Lady  Graden  had 
still  another  duty  to  perform  to  him.  She  knew  that  the  very 
dust  of  God’s  saints  is  precious  in  his  sight ; that  their  bodies, 
though  they  may  become  the  victims  of  man’s  implacable  rage, 
continue  to  bd  the  objects  of  his  incessant  care,  and  in  the  faith 
of  this,  and  in  imitation  of  God,  she  exercised  an  anxious  care 
over  the  body  of  her  friend,  after  the  emancipated  spirit  had 
ascended  from  it  to  the  throne  of  God,  to  receive  the  crown  of 
immortal  life.  “ With  a more  than  masculine  courage,”  as  Foun- 
tainhall  justly  observes,  she  continued  on  the  scaffold  not  only 
till  Baillie  was  executed,  but  till  she  saw  the  hangman  quarter 
his  body.  She  also  went  with  the  hangman  to  see  the  pieces 
oiled  and  tarred,  and  she  took  them  and  wrapped  each  up  in  a 
linen  cloth ; after  which  they  were  thrown  into  the  thieves’  hole, 
before  being  dispersed  to  the  respective  places  where  they  were 
to  be  exhibited  as  a public  spectacle.* 

The  affliction  of  Lady  Jerviswood,  who,  while  all  this  was 
going  on,  was  confined  to  her  chamber,  was  great;  nor  did  the 

* FoontainhaU’s  Historical  Notices,  vol.  ii.,  p.  595.  Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  iii., 
pp.  78-80. 


312 


THE  LADIES  OE  THE  COVENANT. 


government  show  much  sympathy  for  her  lacerated  feelings. 
The  night  after  her  husband  was  hanged  and  quartered,  they 
placed  a guard  of  soldiers  at  her  door ; so  that  a gentleman,  who 
had  received  from  him  a paper  for  her,  could  hardly  get  access 
to  deliver  it  to  her.  Their  object  in  placing  the  soldiers  at  her 
door,  was  to  get  from  her  his  dying  speech,  with  the^  matter  of 
which  they  were  extremely  offended,  and  the  circulation  of  which 
they  were  very  anxious  to  suppress.  She  gave  them  a copy  of 
the  speech,  upon  which  the  soldiers  were  removed.  The  idea 
of  his  members  being  dispersed  through  the  country,  and  exhib- 
ited to  public  view,  was  peculiarly  distressing  to  her  feelings, 
and  she  petitioned  the  privy  council  to  permit  them  to  be  buried. 
The  council  was  too  heartless  to  grant  her  request  from  senti- 
ments of  humanity  ; but  not  altogether  insensible  to  public  odium, 
they  would  willingly  have  given  her  his  members  for  interment 
could  she  have  called  in  and  suppressed  all  the  copies  of  his 
speech,  which  was  so  much  calculated  to  create,  in  the  public 
mind,  sympathy  for  the  martyr,  and  indignation  against  the  bloody 
men  who  murdered  him.  This,  however,  she  very  probably 
could  not  do,  several  copies  of  it  having  been  written  out  and 
circulated,  and,  accordingly,  her  petition  was  rejected.  The 
king  was  also  petitioned  to  the  same  effect ; but,  little  suscepti- 
ble of  humane  emotions,  and  too  much  engrossed  with  his  vicious 
pleasures  to  lend  a favorable  ear  to  a widow’s  plaint,  he  also  re- 
fused to  grant  her  desire. 

“ I am  a king, 

And  wherefore  should  the  clamorous  voice  of  wo 

Intrude  upon  mine  ears.” 

Little  did  he  know,  alas ! that  before  six  weeks  elapsed,  he 
would  be  smitten  by  the  relentless  hand  of  death  in  the  midst  of 
his  debaucheries,  and  summoned  to  give  in  his  account  before  the 
Judge  of  all.  The  mutilated  members  of  the  martyr  lay  in  the 
thieves’  hole  about  twenty  days,  till  the  rats  were  like  to  fall 
upon  them  ; after  which  they  were  sent  to  the  several  places  on 
the  tolbooths  of  which  they  were  to  be  fixed,  according  to  the 
sentence,  and  there,  it  would  seem,  they  continued  till  the  revo- 
lution, when,  it  is  probable,  the  conscience-stricken  persecutors, 
dreading  retaliation  from  the  persecuted  presbyterians,  upon  the 
introduction  of  a new  order  of  things,  took  them  down,  as  they 
took  down  the  heads,  arms  and  legs  of  other  martyrs,  which, 
with  equal  barbarity,  they  had  exposed  upon  the  gates  of  the 
capital,  and  on  the  tolbooths  of  the  principal  towns.* 

Fountainhalfs  Historical  Notices,  vol.  ii.,  p.  595.  Wodrow's  Analecta,  vol. 
iii.,  pp.  78-80. 


MRS.  CAMPBELL. 


313 


Of  Lady  Graden  we  meet  with  no  additional  notices  during 
the  persecution.  She,  however,  lived  to  see  the  Stuarts  expelled 
from  the  British  throne,  and  to  rejoice  in  the  deliverance  which 
was  effected  by  the  prince  of  Orange.  She  also  saw  the  de- 
scendants of  Baillie  raised  to  situations  of  high  honor  and  trust 
under  the  new  government,  and,  what  was  still  better,  adorning 
their  high  stations  by  the  Christian  virtues  which  distinguished 
their  martyred  father,  and  proving  public  blessings  to  their  coun- 
try in  their  day  and  generation..  She  died  in  Edinburgh,  pre- 
vious to  the  11th  of  September,  1707.* 


LILIAS  DUNBAR, 

MRS.  CAMPBELL. 

During  the  persecution,  the  adherents  of  presbytery,  though 
most  numerous  in  the  south  and  west  of  Scotland,  were  scattered 
more  or  less  numerously  over  the  northern  counties.  Even  so  far 
north  as  Morayshire,  and  in. some  of  the  neighboring  shires,  not  a 
few  of  them  were  to  be  found.  The  gospel  had  been  preached  in 
these  remote  parts  with  considerable  success,  by  Mr.  Robert  Bruce, 
Mr.  David  Dickson,  and  other  ministers  who  had  been  banished 
thither  by  James  VI.,  or  by  the  high  commission  court,  for  their 
opposition  to  the  introduction  of  prelacy,  and  the  fruits  of  the 
instructions  of  these  eminent  men  remained  even  to  the  perse- 
cuting times.  The  labors  of  several  very  worthy  ministers,  who 
were  settled  in  these  localities  previous  to  the  Restoration,  but 
who,  shortly  after  that  era,  were  ejected  from  their  charges,  had 
also  been  accompanied,  during  their  incumbency,  with  no  small 
measure  of  success  ; and  some  of  them,  as  Mr.  Thomas  Hog, 
Mr.  John  M^Gilligen,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Ross,  continued  to  preach 
publicly  after  their  ejection,  with  evident  tokens  of  the  Divine 
blessing.  Many  who  had  profited  under  their  pastoral  care,  and 
who  sympathized  with  them  and  the  cause  in  which  they  suffer- 
ed, no  doubt  went  to  the  parish  churches  to  hear  the  curates  ; 
but  while  they  did  so,  they  were  secretly  hostile  to  prelacy,  and 

“ The  testament  dative  and  inventory  of  the  debts  and  sums  of  money  pertain- 
ing and  addebted  to  umqubill  Helen  Johnston,  relict  of  the  deceased  Mr.  George 
Home  of  Graden,  the  time  of  her  decease,  who  deceased  within  the  city  of  Edin- 
burgh,” is  registered  lltli  September,  1707. — Commissary  Records  of  Edinburgh. 

27 


314 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT, 


a considerable  number  desisted  altogether  from  waiting  on  the 
ministry  of  the  conforming  clergy.  Nor  was  it  the  poor,  and 
more  illiterate,  but  the  more  wealthy  and  the  best  educated  of 
the  population,  several  of  them  proprietors  of  the  soil,  Avho 
favored  the  presbyterian  cause.  So  strong -a  conviction  had  the 
government  been  led  to  form  of  the  presbyterian  leanings  of  the 
people  in  Morayshire,  as  to  suspect  that  a considerable  portion 
of  them  had  actually  joined  with  the  covenanters  at  Bothwell 
bridge,  or  supported  them  with  money,  horses,  arms,  or  provis- 
ions, although,  after  the  strictest  inquiry  made  by  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  privy  council,  who  met  at  Elgin  in  the  beginning 
of  the  year  1685,  no  evidence  of  this  was  brought  out.  The 
government  had  also  been  led  to  believe  that  some  of  the  leading 
men  among  them  had,  from  favor  to  the  covenanters,  employed 
a stratagem  to  prevent  the  heritors  and  militia  from  going  out  to 
assist  the  king’s  forces  in  putting  down  the  insurrection  at  Both- 
well bridge,  at  the  very  time  when  they  were  convening  for  that 
purpose.  A fiery  cross  had  been  carried  through  the  shire  of 
Moray,  avowedly  to  raise-  the  inhabitants  to  defend  themselves 
against  the  McDonalds',  who,  it  was  given  out,  were  about  to  in- 
vade them  ; but  the  friends  of  the  government  alleged  that  this 
was  a mere  pretext,  maintaining  that  the  McDonalds  were  at  a 
distance,  and  had  no  such  hostile  intention,  and  that  the  real  ob- 
ject of  the  mission  of  the  fiery  cross  was  to  keep  the  heritors 
and  militia  from  going  out  to  join  the  king’s  host,  by  creating  an 
apprehension  that  their  presence  was  necessary  at  home  for  the 
protection  of  their  own  bounds.*  So  favorably  inclined  were 
some  of  the  most  respectable  and  wealthy  in  that  part  of  tho 
country  to  the  presbyterian  interest,  and  so-  desirous  'were  they 
of  enjoying  the  pastoral  instruction  and  superintendence  of  minis- 
ters of  that  persuasion,  th^t  they  came  to  the  resolution  of  using 
means  for  obtaining  from  the  government  the  extension  of  the 
indulgence  which  had  been  granted  in  the  south,  to  Morayshire, 
and  appointed  two  of  their  number.  Sir  Hugh  Campbell,  of  Cal- 
der,  and  Thomas  Dunbar,  of  Grange,  to  go  to  Edinburgh  upon 
this  matter,  authorizing  them  to  act  therein  according  to  their  own 
discretion.  Finding,  on  their  arrival  at  Edinburgh,  that  there 
was  no  prospect  of  their  proposal  being  favorably  listened  to  by 
the  government,  there  being  then  every  appearance  that  the  in- 
dulgence granted  in  the  south  would  be  withdrawn,  these  two 
commissioners  did  not  move  in  the  business  a;t  alLf 

Among  the  secret  or  avowed  friends  of  the  persecuted' cause 
* See  Appendix,  No.  VIII.  t See  Appendix,  No.  IX. 


MRS.  CAMPBELL. 


315 


of  nonconformity  in  Morayshire  and  the  neighboring  shires, 
were  several  ladies  of  respectable  rank  and  of  distinguished 
piety;  among  whom  may  be  enumerated  the  lady  of  Sir  Hugh 
Campbell,  of  Calder,  Lady  Duffus,  Lady  Kilravock,  Lady  Muir- 
town,  Lady  Innes,  and  others.  The  lady  of  whom  we  now  pro- 
pose to  give  some  account,  though  respectably  connected,  was  of 
humbler  rank  than  the  ladies  now  mentioned.  But  she  was  in 
some  respects  superior  to  any  of  them,  not,  it  may  be,  on  the 
score  of  piety,  yet  in  regard  to  her  enlightened  and  resolute  ad- 
herence to  presbyterian  principles.  She  has  left  behind  her  a 
diary,*  which,  though  consisting  chiefly  of  a’ record  of  her  reli- 
gious exercise  and  experience,  is  very  interesting  and  instruct- 
ive. It  breathes  throughout  a spirit  of  ardent  piety.  It  displays 
an  extensive  acquaintance  with  the  Scriptures,  and  is  remarka- 
ble for  the  judiciousness  of  the  sentiment,  untinctured  by  extrav- 
agance or  enthusiasm,  as  well  as  for  the  elegant  simplicity  of 
the  style,  the  age  in  which  it  was  written  being  considered ; 
from  which  it  is  evident  that  she  was  a woman  of  superior  mind, 
and  that  her  piety  was  as  enlightened  as  it  was  ardent. 

Lilias  Dunbar  was  the  only  daughter  of  Mr. Dunbar, 

of  Boggs,  by  his  wife,  Christian  Campbell,  daughter  to  Sir  John 
Campbell,  fifth  knight  of  Calder.  She  was  born  about  the  year 
1657.  When  very  young,  she  had  the  misfortune  to  be  deprived 
of  both  her  parents  by  death  ; after  which  she  was  for  some  time 
brought  up  by  her  cousin.  Sir  Hugh  Campbell,  who  succeeded 

* This  diary  was  printed  for  the  first  time  in  “ The  Religious  Monitor  and  Evan- 
gelical Repository”  for  1835,  an  American  periodical  publication.  It  is  preceded  by 
a short  biographical  notice  of  the  authoress,  wi  itten  by  the  Rev.  James  Calder,  min 
ister'of  Groy,  her  grandson.  Of  this  diary,  ample  use  is  made  in  the  present  me- 
moir; and  my  best  acknowledgments  are  due  to  the  Rev.  Thomas  Goodwillie, 
Barnet,  State  of  Vermont,  United  States  of  America,  who  kindly  transmitted  to  me 
a copy  of  the  several  numbers  of  the  periodical  in  which  it  is  contained.  I am  also 
under  obligations  to  the  Rev.  John  Russell;  Stamford,  Canada  West,  to  whom  the 
MS.  from  which  the  diary  was  printed,  belongs,  for  some  interesting  notices  of  the 
descendants  of  one  of  Mrs.  Campbell’s  daughters,  which  the  reader  will  find  in  the 
close  of  this  sketch.  Mr  Russell  inherited  this  MS.  from  his  mother-in-law,  the 
wife  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Clark,  of  Boghole,  and  great-granddaughter  of  Mrs.  Camp- 
bell, and,  though  not  the  original,  it  is  a transcript  either  from  it  or  from  a correct 
copy.  “ The  Rev.  James  Calder,”  says  he,  “ informs  us  in  his  preface  that  he  had 
the  diary  transcribed,  under  his  own  eye,  from  the.  original.  My  mother-in-law, 
Mrs.  Clark,  of  Boghole,  borrowed  either  the  original,  or,  more  probably  that  copy, 
from  her  uncle,  and  transcribed  the  whole  of  it  in  a very  plain,  good  hand.  This 
copy  is  now  in  our  posse.ssion.  Some  years  ago,  through  urgent  importunity,  we 

permitted  it  to  be  taken  to  the  Rev.  Alexander  Gordon,  late  of New  York, 

that  it  might  be  published  in  ‘ The  Religious  Monitor,’  and,  when  in  type,  a few- 
extra  copies  were  struck  ofi*  for  gratuitous  distribution  among  acquaintances  hi 
America  friendly  to  the  reformation  in  Scotland.” 


316 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


ner  grandfather,  as  the  nearest  male  heir  of  the  famil}'  of  Calder. 
She  was  next  taken  into  the  family  of  her  cousin-german,  the 
pious  Lady  Dufius,  who  acted  toAvard  her  the  part  not  merely  of 
a kind  friend,  but  of  an  indulgent  mother,  for  twelve  years  ; and 
for  whom  she  felt  all  the  tenderness  of  an  affectionate  daughter. 

Though  favored  with  a religious  education,  she  did  not  feel 
even  common  serious  impressions  till  she  had  nearly  reached 
the  seventeenth  year  of  her  age,  when  she  became  dangerously 
ill  of  the  small-pox,*  in  the  family  of  Lord  Duffus,  at  Elgin. 
She  acknowledges  that  before  this  she  had  no  religion,  though 
education  and  good' company  had  sufficient  influence  on  her  con- 
science to  keep  her  from  hating  and  reproaching  the  godly,  and 
though  she  was  kept  from  gross  outward  sins.  Under  this  sick- 
ness, her  conscience  being  awakened,  she  vowed  that  should 
God  in  his  providence  recover  her,  she  would  strive  to  be  his 
servant ; and  having,  notwithstanding  her  previous  thoughtless- 
ness about  religion,  been  convinced  that  the  nonconforming  min- 
isters far  surpassed  the  conforming  in  spirituality  of  character, 
as  well  as  in  their  success  in  turning  sinners  to  God,  and  in  build- 
ing up  saints,  she  also  resolved  to  embrace  such  opportunities  as 
offered,  of  hearing  them  preach.  This,  and  not  that  intelligent 
acquaintance  with  the  important  principles  for  which  they  were 
suffering,  which  she  afterward  attained,  was  the  reason  why  she 
purposed  to  attend  their  ministry.  “ At  that  time,”  says  she,  ‘‘  I 
did  not  truly  perceive  how  much  it  was  my  duty  to  take  heed 
whom  I heard,  and  to  consider  them  who  were  my  ministers, 
and  to  follow  their  faith,  looking  to  the  end  of  their  conversation, 
and  to  mark  them  that  make  divisions,  and  turn  aside  for  reward. 
Neither  did  I understand  that  there  was  so  much  of  popery  and 
will-worship  in  episcopacy  as  truly  there  is.  Neither  did  I 
know  that  the  presbyterians’  laying  down  of  life  and  liberty  was 
for  such  a weighty  matter  as  owning  Jesus  Christ  in  his  kingly 
office.  The  end  for  which  I intended  to  hear  presbyterian  min- 
isters preach  was,  because  I heard  and  saw  that  the  Lord  had 
blessed  their  labors  to  many,  and  souls  were  getting  good  by 
them.” 

On  her  recovery  from  this  sickness,  she  went  again  to  Calder, 
whence  she  had  come  to  Elgin ; and  there  being  at  that  time  in 
Calder  several  godly  ministers,  Mr.  Thomas  Ross,  Mr.  Thomas 
Hog,  and  Mr.  James  Urquhart,  she  had  an  opportunity  of  attend- 
ing their  ministry,  which  she  highly  prized.  Still  she  confesses 
that  “ the  getting  of  Christ  and  a new  heart  was  not  her  first  de- 
* This  was  in  the  year  1674. 


MRS.  CAMPBELL. 


317 


■ r- 


Sire/ but  to  get  something  in  herself  to  answer  God’s  goodness 
with,  and  to  get  and  embrace  the  means  of  salvation  that  she 
wanted  Christ  and  a new  heart  days  and  years  after  this,  even 
until  she  saw  herself  miserable  without  Christ,  and  glad  to  sell 
all  in  her  and  without  her  to  get  that  enriching  pearl and  that 
though  she  aimed  at  serving  the  Lord  and  seeking  a righteous- 
ness, she  sought  it  long  in  herself  before  she  attained  to  that 
which  cometh  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 

The  first  two  sabbaths  after  her  coming  to  Calder,  she  went  to 
the  Old  Town  of  Kilraick,  where  Mr.  Thomas  Ross  then  dwelt, 
and  heard  him  preach.  Under  the  sermons  of  this  holy  man, 
she  felt  her  affections  grow  warm  with  zeal  for  God,  and  love 
to  Mr.  Ross’s  hearers,  and  her  heart  inspired  with  a greater  fear 
of  committing  sin  than  she  had  formerly  experienced.  But 
though  more  delighted  with  sitting  under  his  ministry  than  ever 
she  had  been  with  hearing  any  of  the  prelatic  persuasion,  yet 
from  the  fear  of  giving  offence  to  several-  persons  whom  she 
loved,  she  went  next  sabbath  to  hear  Mr.  Donald  McPherson, 
the  incumbent  of  the  parish  of  Calder.  “ I got  no  good,”  says 
she,  ‘‘  there,  but  rather  evil.  What  I heard  had  no  impression 
on  my  affections  or  memory.  It  was  a dead  sound  to  me.  Nei- 
ther did  I discern  so  much  as  reverence  to  God  among  the  peo- 
ple I saw  there.  I was  even  ensnared  by  the  carnal  carriage  and 
discourse  of  that  congregation.”  From  this  she  found  that  the 
word  of  God  proved  profitable  to  the  hearers  only  when  preached 
by  those  who  walk  uprightly  ; and  that  when  it  is  otherwise,  God’s 
holy  name  is  profaned  by  the  speaker,  and  the  Word  preached 
tends  to  harden  the  hearts  of  the  hearers.  Having  derived  no 
benefit  from  hearing  Mr.  McPherson  preach  on  the  sabbath  re- 
ferred to,  nor  during  the  three  years  in  which,  previous  to  this, 
she  had  attended  his  ministry,  while  the  hearing  of  Mr.  Thomas 
Ross  begat  in  her  a desire  after  God,  she  resolved  to  wait  on  the 
pure  preaching  of  the  Word,  so  long  as  such  an  opportunity  was 
within  her  reach ; and  from  that  time  she  continued  to  hear  Mr. 
Ross,  under  whose  pulpit  instructions  she  profited  in  head- 
knowledge,  in  formality  of  duties,  and  in  outward  zeal:”'  Half  a 
year  after  this  she  went  to  Elgin,  to  visit  Lady  Duffus,  and,  con- 
trary to  her  intention,  was  kept  there  over  sabbath.  On  Satur- 
day, if  v/as  distressing  to  her  to  think  of  going  on  the  morrow  to 
hear  the  bishop,*  for  having  been  his  hearer  half  a year  before, 
she  knew  the  unedifying  and  fruitless  character  of  his  sermons. 
But  there  being  no  motive  inducing  her  to  go,  except  the  fear  of 
* Mr.  Murdoch  M'Keiizie. 

27* 


318 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


man,  and  persuaded  that  it  is  better  to  offend  man  than  God,  she 
stayed  at  home  on  the  sabbath,  for  whicli  she  met  with  censure 
and  reproach.  “ From  this,”  says  she,  “ I observed,  1st,  that  a 
natural  conscience  will  move  men  to  their  duty,  although  they 
should  suffer  for  doing  the  same,  and  yet  be  void  of  true  love  to 
God;  and,  2d,  that  it  is  good  to  walk  according  to  one’s  light,' 
both  in  his  judgment  and  outward  performance,  although  he  have 
not  yet  attained  to  be  right  in  the  more  weighty  matter  in  the 
heart.  It  was  love  I had  to  my  own  soul  that  made  me  stay 
from  that  polluted  ordinance,  rather  than  to  witness  for  God,  in 
my  station,  against  the  evil  of  the  times.” 

After  slaying  one  sabbath  at  Elgin,  she  returned  to  Calder,  in- 
tending next  spring  to  remove  to  Elgin  and  stay  with  Lady  Duf- 
fus.  There  being  at  that  time  no  presbyterian  ministers  at  El- 
gin, she  was  not  a little  perplexed  as  to  whether  she  should 
attend  the  ministry  of  the  bishop.  The  temptation  suggested 
itself  tb  her  mind,  that  many  better  than  herself  went  to  hear  the 
prelatic  ministers,  and  that  her  noncompliance  might  be  adverse 
to  her  worldly  interest,  by  giving,  offence  to  Lady  Duffus,  and 
the  other  members  of  the  family.  Influenced  by  such  motives, 
she  resolved,  though  without  expressing  her  intention  to  any 
one,  to  go  with  the  crowd  to  hear  the  prelates  and  their  curates 
on  the  sabbath,  when  deprived  of  an  opportunity  of  hearing  the 
presbyterian  ministers.  Becoming,  however,  soon  after,  con- 
vinced that  it  was  sinful  for  her,  from  the  fear  of  reproach,  of  of 
injuring  her  temporal  interests,  to  take  the  example  of  a few  per- 
sons for  her  rule,  and  acting  ugdn  this  conviction,  she  entirely 
left  off  hearing  the  prelatic  incumbents. 

In  1677,  she  suffered  a heavy  affliction  in  the  loss  of  Lady 
Duffus,  who  died  on  the  16th  of  April  that  year.  About  a fort- 
night after  the  death  of  this  kind  benefactor,  she  gave  up  the 
charge  she  had  in  the  family,  and  came  out  in  the  evening  with- 
out a creature  to  comfort  her,  and  without  knowing  where  her 
next  residence  would  be.  Under  this  bereavement,  sh'er  sought 
consolation  in  religion,  and  it  was  her  own  belief  that  the  date  of 
her  first  becoming  a genuine  believer  in  Christ  was  about  a fort- 
night after  that  event.  This  appears  from  the  following  entry  in 
her  diary  : — 

‘‘Elgin,  May  1,  1677. 

“ The  Lord,  who  is  the  Almighty,  by  his  power,  made  my  soul 
to  close  with  the  Lord  Jesus,  wholly  on  the  terms  that  the  gospel 
holdeth  forth;  and  the  Lord  himself  gave  me  faith  to  believe  in 
Jesus  Christ,  that  he  was  my  Savior,  which  I could  never  attain 


MRS.  CAMPBELL. 


319 


before  tliat  time  on  good  grounds.  On  that  blessed  morning  to 
me,  I got  the  Rock  of  ages  to  be  my  support,  and  I got  Christ 
Jesus  to  be  to  me  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness,  to  com- 
fort me  inwardly,  under  my  disconsolate  condition  outwardly ; 
for  it  was  but  fifteen  days  after  the  death  of  my  Lady  Duffus,  who 
was  in  place  of  my  parents  and  all  my  relations  to  me.  Now  I 
can  not  pass  by  without  observing  the  Vv^isdom  and  goodness  of 
God  to  me,  in  choosing  that  day  and  time  for  my  deliverance  out 
of  the  hands  of  all  mine  enemies,  that  I might  serve  him  without 
fear.  It  was  the  time  wherein  I was  most  desolate.  I was  de- 
prived of  my  parents  by  death,  and  had  not  the  expectation  of 
other  means  to  supply  my  wants.  It  was  then  I was  deprived 
of  the  only  person  in  the^  world  who  took  care  of  me,  when  it 
pleased  the  wise  Lord  by  death  to  put  a separation  betwixt  my 
Lady  Dufius  and  me,  who  died  April  16,  1677.  Then  it  was 
that  the  gracious  God,  who  delights  in  showing  mercy,  did  en- 
large my  heart,  and  made  me  to  take  hold  of  him  who  is  the 
pearl  of  great  price,  in  whom  all  fullness  dwells.” 

In  another  place,  after  speaking  of  her  great  affection  to  Lady 
Dufiiis,  and  the  loss  she  sustained  by  her  death,  she  says  : “ Truly 
I think  nothing  less  than  deliverance  ^ out  of  soul -troubles,  and 
the  love  of  Christ,  could  make  me  overcome  the  loss  of  her  who 
was  my  all  in  the  world ; my  pleasure,  honor,  and  riches,  were 
all  in  her  : but  how  soon  was  all  this  laid  in  the  dust  to  me  ! Yet 
praises  for  ever  be  to  Him  who  did  it,  so  that  we  both  were  gain- 
ers. She  hath  passed  from  the  valley  of  misery,  and,  as  she 
herself  said  at  her  death,  hath  gotten  the  palm-tree  in  her' hand, 
and  now  she  walks  with  the  Lamb  in  white.  As  for  my  part,  for 
brass  I have  gotten  gold,  for  a fading  flower  I have  gotten  the 
Noble  Plant  of  Renown,  who  is  the  brightness  of  the  Father’s 
glory,  and  the  express  image  of  his  person ; him  . who  was  dead 
and  is  alive,  and  lives  for  evermore  ; him  from  whom  death  shall 
not  be  able  to  separate  me,  for  he  shall  be  with  me  when  I go 
through  the  dark  valley,  so  that  I shall  fear  no  evil.  He  shall 
present  me  spotless  to  the  Father,  in  that  place  where  there  is 
no  sin,  no  sorrow,  no  sickness,  no  death ; where  I shall  behold 
his  face  with  joy,  and  where  there  are  durable  riches  and  ever- 
lasting pleasures.” 

In  those  days  of  primitive  simplicity  and  great  religious  fervor, 
it  was  more  customary  than  in  our  day  for  Christians,  in  order  to 
have  their  religious  experiences  tested,  to  communicate  them  to 
godly  ministers,  who  were  supposed  to  be  skilled  in  distinguish- 
ing the  genuine  work  of  God’s  Spirit  from  counterfeit  or  spurious 


320 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


marks  of  grace.  Of  this,  besides  other  instances  which  occur  in 
the  diary  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  we  meet  with  an  example 
in  the  account  which  she  gives  of  a*  visit  she  made,  in  1677,  to 
Mr.  Thomas  Ross,  who  was  then  a prisoner  in  Tain.'  “ One 
part  of  my  errand,”  says  she,  “ was  to  inform  him  of  my  condi- 
tion, and  to  be  tried  by  him,  that,  if  I was  right,  I might  be  the 
more  confirmed,  and  that  my  good  Lord  might  get  praise  for  his 
goodness,  and  for  his  wonderful  works  to  me.” 

She  was  accompanied  by  an  intimate, friend,  a young  woman 
named  Jean  Taylor,  who  also  had  a desire  to  see  Mr.  Ross,  who 
had  previously  been  tho  instrument  of  good  to  her  soul.  On  com- 
ing to  Tain,  they  found  the  good  man  sickly,  yet  he  spent  the 
time  with  them  in  very  edifying  discourse,  and  in  explaining  to 
them  several  passages  of  scripture,  about  which  they  desired  to 
be  informed.  “We  found  much  of  the  presence  of  God  in  his 
company,”  says  she,  “ and  our  hearts  opened  to  one  another  to 
tell  of  the  goodness  of  God  to  our  souls.  Being  with  him  alone 
next  morning,  I told  him  all,  the  particular  steps  I could  remem- 
ber of  my  soul-exercises,  since  I was  taken  from  being  his  hearer 
in  the  Old  Town  of  Kilraick,  which  was  two  years  before  that 
time.  When  I told  him  of  my  soul-trouble,  and  began  to  tell  him 
of  my  deliverance,  and  the  loving-kindness  of  the  Lord  to  me^ 
how  my  will  was  broken,  and  faith  wrought,  and  Ghrist  Jesus 
manifested  to  me — our  souls  were  filled  with  the  joy  of  the  Lord. 
Mr.  Ross  wept  for  joy,  and  1 was  so  filled  with  a sense  and  feel- 
ing of  the  wonderful  power  of  God,  and  his  love  to  my  soul  in 
Jesus  Christ,  that  I was  put  to  silence  for  a while,  and  could  not 
get  expressions  to  vent  the  ocean  of  his  love.” 

She  returned  from  Tain  to  Moiness,  where  she  stayed  some 
weeks  with  Mrs.  Donald  Campbell,  whose  kindness  to  her  she 
gratefully  records,  aud  to  whom  she  had  freedom  in  communica- 
ting her  Christian  experience,  that  lady  “ being  one,”  as  she  ob- 
serves, “ that  had  tasted  that  the  Lord  was  gracious.”*  Shortly 
after,  she  went  to  service  to  Lady  Innes  Younger,  who  was  resi- 
ding at  Dipple.  All  these  changes  strongly  affected  her  mind. 
Writing  in  July,  1677,  she  says  : “ Lady  Innes  Younger  sent  for 
me  to  Moiness,  to  go  home  to  her  service  to  Dipple  ; upon  which 
I had  deep  impressions  on  my  spirit  of  being  desolate — an  or- 
phan, having  neither  father  nor  mother,  and  those  who  supplied 
their  room  to  me  were  taken  from  me.  First,  my  aunt,  lady  to 
the  master  of  Forbes,  and  soon  after,'my  Lady  Duffus,  her  daugh- 
ter, who  was  indeed  a mother  to  me  for  twelve  years.  My  love 
to  her  did  exceed  its  due  bounds  ; my  expectations  from  her,  and 


MRS.  CAMPBELL. 


321 


my  fears  of  being  deprived  of  her,  were  both  great.”  In  the  fam- 
ily of  Lady  Lines  she  was*,  however,  very  comfortable.  Of  that 
lady  she  speaks  in  the  highest  terms.  “ She  whom  I was  serv- 
ing was  a real  seeker  of  God,  and  zealous  for  the  truth;  a wise, 
reserved  woman,  easy  to  be  served ; of  a pleasant,  natural  tem- 
per. I never  got  an  angry  word  from  her.  Her  regret  would 
be  that  I was  not  so  well  with  her  as  she  would  desire  ; and  my 
complaint  was,  that  my  service  done  her  was  so  small.” 

During  the  time  of  her  residence  in  that  family,  she  enjoyed 
much  spirituaL comfort.  “ I stayed  a year  with  her,  which  was 
a blessed  time  to  my  soul,  such  as  I have  not  had  the  like.” — 
“ That  was  the  year  wherein  I was  taken  up  to  Mount  Pisgah, 
and  made  to  view  the  promised  land,  and  did  eat  of  the  grapes 
of  Eshcol,  even  the  first-fruits  of  that  land  that  is  the  glory  of  all 
lands.” — “ The  first  month  I was  at  Dipple  ....  I was  made  to 
read  my  own  name  in  the  book  of  Election,  by  finding  the  Spirit 
of  God  in  his  Word  bearing  witness  with  my  spirit  that  I was 
his.  I was  made  to  consider  what  my  case  was  the  year  before  ; 
how  the  threatenings  of  the  Word  of  God  were  a terror  to  me, 
because  I found  myself  guilty ; the  avenger  of  blood  pursuing, 
and  I without  the  city  of  refuge.  I found  my  conscience  con- 
demning me,  so  that  I bore  the  sentence  of  death  in  my  breast. 
I was  encompassed  about  with  fears  in  my  greatest  prosperity. 
Then  I was  made  to  wonder  and  rejoice  at  the  blessed  change  I 
felt  wrought  in  my  soul — faith  where  there  was  unbelief,  light 
where  there  was  darkness,  hope  where  there  was  fear : I was 
made  to  find  the  enmity  that  was  in  me  taken  away,  and  God  in 
Christ  become  my  friend.” 

in  the  summer  of  the  year  1679,  in  the  twenty-second  year  of 
her  age,  she  was  married  to  Mr.  Alexander  Campbell  of  Torrich, 
a young  gentleman  descended,  like  herself,  from  the  family  of 
Calder,  and  a cousin  of  her  own.  In  the  prospect  of  entering 
into  this  new  relation,  her  unwillingness  to  have  the  service  per- 
formed by  any  of  the  prelatic  clergy  occasioned  her  no  small 
perplexity,  it  being  a crime,  as  the  law  then  stood,  to  employ  for 
that  purpose  the  nonconforming  ministers.  ‘‘  This  matter,”  says 
she,  “ which  gave  me  much  trouble  before,  and  was  likely  to 
give  more,  was  then  so  presented  to  my  view  that  it  was  a sharp 
trial  to  my  faith.”  The  union  was,  however,  formed  by  Mr.  John 
Stewart,  who,  at  the  restoration,  was  minister  of  a parish  in  the 
presbytery  of  Deer,  in  the  synod  of  Aberdeen,  but  who  was  eject- 
ed for  nonconformity.  This  we  learn  from  the  examination  of 
Mr.  Stewart  before  the  committee  of  the  privy  council,  which  met 


322 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


at  Elgin  on  the  2d  of  February,  1685  ; when  he  “ deponed  that  he 
married  Alexander  Campbell,  in  Calder’s-land,  with  Lilias  Dunbar, 
who  had“been  the  Lady  Innes’s  servant  long  before  the  indemnity.” 
This  new  relation  proved  to  her  the  source  of  much  domestic 
happiness.  In  Mr.  Campbell,  who  was  a man  of  genuine  piety, 
as  well  as  an  intelligent  and  warm  friend  of  the  presbyterian  in- 
terest, she  found  a husband  whose  character,  tastes,  and  habits, 
were  congenial  to  her  own  ; and  she  records,  twelve  years  after 
this,  that  his  “ tender  affection  and  care  of  her,  in  all  her  bodily 
distresses,  was  one  of  the  greatest  mercies  bestowed  on  her.” 

The  persecution  which  raged  in  the  south  of  Scotland,  also 
embraced  Morayshire.  The  nonconforming  ministers  there,  like 
those  in  the  south,  were  ejected  from  their  charges  ; and  some 
of  them,  as  Mr.  Thomas  Hog,  Mr.  John  M‘Gilligen,  and  Mr. 
Thomas  Ross,  were  imprisoned  both  in  the  North  and  in  the 
Bass.  Several  of  the  laity,  toO,  were  fined  and  imprisoned  by 
the  sheriff  of  the  shire.  It  was  not,  however,  till  the  year  1685, 
that  Mrs.  Campbell  was  subjected  to  trouble  on  account  of  her 
presbyterian  principles.  To  put  the  laws  against  nonconformity 
into  execution,  the  government  had  adopted  the  method  of  send- 
ing commissioners  invested  with  ample  powers  to  different  parts 
of  the  country,  to  hold  courts  for  trying  such  as  were  guilty  of 
church  disorders  ; and  about  the  close  of  the  year  1684,  it  was 
resolved  to  adopt  vigorous  measures  against  the  presbyterians  in 
the  north.  On  the  30th  of  December  that  year,  the  privy  coun- 
cil in  obedience  to  a letter  received  from  his  majesty,  appointed 
and  commissioned  the  earl  of  Errol,  the  earl  of  Kintore,  and  Sir, 
George  Munro,  to  proceed  to  Morayshire,  “ to  meet  and  hold 
courts,  and  in  these  courts  to  call  and  convene  all  parties  guilty 
of  conventicles,  withdrawing  from  the  public  ordinances,  disor- 
derly baptisms  or  marriages,  and  such  like  disorders  and  irregu- 
larities ; and  to  take  their  oath  or  examine  witnesses  against 
them,  as  they  shall  see  cause,  pronounce  sentences  and  cause 
the  same  to  put  to  due  execution,  by  imprisonment  or  other  legal 
diligence,  either  as  to  witnesses  not  compearing,  or  compearing 
refusing  to  depone,  or  as  to  parties  §ilso  refusing  to  depone  when 
the  verity  of  the  libel  is  remitted  to  their  oath,  conform  to  the 
laws  of  this  realm.’  The  bounds  included  in  their  commission 
were  “ betwixt  Spey  and  Ness,  including  Strathspey  and  Aberne- 
thy,”  and  their  first  meeting  was  to  be  at  Elgin,  January  22,  1685.* 

Warrants  of  Privy  Council.  On  the  9tli  of  January,  1685,  their  commission 
was  extended  to  the  shires  of  Inverness,  Ross,  Cromarty,  and  Sutherland,  the  coun- 
cil having  heard  that  there  were  several  persons  guilty  of  the  like  delinquencies  in 
these  shires. 


MRS.  CAMPBELL. 


323 


To  facilitate  the  proceedings  of  these  commissioners,  the  coun- 
cil, on  the  8th  of  January,  1685,  wrote  a letter  to  the  bishop  of 
Moray,  recommending”  him  to  advertise  all  his  ministers  within 
the  bounds  specified,  to  attend  the  comniissioners  on  the  above 
day,  bringing  with  them  their  elders,  and  lists  of  persons  guilty 
of  church  disorders,  or  suspected  of  disaffection  to  the  present 
established  government  in  church  or  .state.  And  to  afford  all  en- 
couragement and  protection  to  the  commissioners,  the  council,  at 
the  same  meeting,  wrote  a letter  to  Lord  Down,  sheriff  of  Mo- 
ray, requiring  and  commanding  him  to  convene  all  the  heritors 
and  freeholders  in  his  shire  and  bounds  foresaid,  and  his  militia 
regiment,  to  attend  the  commissioners  until  the  end  of  their  com- 
mission, and  to  receive  and  obey  such  orders  as  should  be  given 
them  by  the  commissioners  from  time  to  time. 

As  a further  means  of  facilitating  the  proceedings  of  the  com- 
missioners, the  council  obtained  a list  of  between  two  and  three 
hundred  nonconformists  in  Morayshire  and  the  adjacent  dis- 
tricts, made  up,  it  is  probable,  by  the  assistance  of  the  established 
clergy,  who  throughout  the  whole  of  Scotland  were  particularly 
zealous  in  furnishing  the  government  with  lists  of  persons  who 
did  not  attend  the  parish  churches.  And  on  the  10th  of  January, 
1685,  the  council  ordered  letters  to  be  addressed  to  his  majesty’s 
messengers-at-arms,  and  also  to  the  sheriff  in  that  part  of  the 
country,  comrnanding  them  to  summon,  according  to  the  legal 
forms,  the  persons  named  and  criminated  in  the  letters,  to  appear 
personally  before  the  lords-commissioners,  of  the  privy  counci 
and  justiciary,  to  meet  at  Elgin,  “ to  answer  to  the  foresaid  com- 
plaint, and  to  give  their  oaths  of  verity  thereupon,  or  such  arti- 
cles thereof  as  shall  be  by  the  said  lords  referred  thereto,  with 
certification  to  them,  if  they  refuse  to  depone  as  aforesaid,  the 
said  lords  are  to  hold  them  as  confessed,  and  proceed  to  pro- 
nounce sentence  against  them  for  an  arbitrary  punishment  as 
offers  under  the  pain  of  rebellion  and  putting  of  them  thereto 
simpliciter.”*  In  the  list  of  those  against  whom  these  letters 
were  raised,  were  Mrs.  Campbell,  Mr.  Campbell,  and  his  mother  ; 
and  they  were  duly  summoned. 

On  the  30th  of  January,  two  messengers-at-arms  proceeded  to 
the  market-cross  of  Nairn,  the  head  of  the  shire  in  which  Mrs. 
Campbell,  and  many  of  the  others  whose  names  appear  in  the 
letters,  resided,  and  thereat,  after  three  several  oyess,”  open 
proclamation,  and  public  reading  of  the  letters  in  time  of  public 
market,  commanded  and  charged  them  in  the  name  and  by  the 
* Warrants  of  Privy  Council. 


324 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


authority  of  his,  majesty,  to  compear  before  the  lords-commis- 
sioners  of  his  majesty’s  council  and  justiciary  at  Elgin,  upon  the 
4th  day  of  February  next,  to  answer  to  the  said  complaint. 

The  charges  brought  against  Mrs.  Campbell  and  the  other  in- 
dividuals against  whom  these  letters  were  directed,  will  be  best 
learned  from  the  letters  themselves.*  They  begin  with  affirm- 
ing, that  “ by  thc^laws  and  customs,  of  all  well-governed  nations, 
laws  and  practices  of  this  kingdom,  and  many  clear  and  express 
acts  of  parliament,  the  crimes  of  sedition,  the  enticing,  persuad- 
ing, instigating,  or  encouraging,  any  persons  to  rebellion : the 
supplying  and  furnishing  them  with  money  or  provisions  for  car- 
rying on  thereof ; the  giving  them  any  help  or  counsel  thereanent ; 
the  keeping  of  intelligence  or  correspondence  with  them;  the 
concealing,  resetting,  harboring,  supplying,  conversing,  intercom- 
muning,  or  corresponding  with,  or  doing  favors  to  any  traitors, 
rebels,  fugitives,  vagrant  preachers,  or  intercommuned  persons  ; 
the  giving  meat,  drink,  house,  harbor,  or  relief,  comfort,  or  coun- 
sel to  them  ; the  maintaining,  of  the  treasonable  positions  and 
principles  of  resisting,  suspending,  depriving,  or  deposing  us 
from  the  exercise  of  our  royal  government,  putting  limitations  on 
their  due  allegiance  and  obedience  to  us ; the  malicious  speak- 
ing, advising,  and  writing,  preaching  or  expressing  such  treason- 
able intentions  ; the  attempting  or  endeavoring  any  manner  of 
way  the  diversion  or  suspension  of  the  right  of  succession  to  the 
imperial  crown  of  this  realm,  or  debarring  the  next  lawful  suc- 
cessor from  the  immediate  actual  and  free  administration  of  the 
government;  the  platting  and  contriving  against- us  and.  our  gov- 
ernment ; the  uttering  of  any  glanderous  or  seditious  speeches 
again^  us,  our  council,  or  proceedings;  the  stirring  up  of  our 
people  to  sedition,  rebellion,  or  a dislike  of  our  government ; the 
leasing-making  to,  of,  or  betwixt  us  and  our  people ; the  conceal- 
ing and  not  revealing  of  treason,,  and  the  hearing  of  seditious  and 
treasonable  speeches  and  proposals  of  contributing  and  collecting 
money  for  forfaulted  traitors,  rebels,  or  fugitives,  and  not  discov- 
ering and  giving  notice  of  the  same,  are  in  themselves  crimes  of 
a very  high  and  dangerous  nature  and  consequence,  punishable 
with  the  pains  of  death,  forfeiture  of  life,  lands^  and  goods  ; and 
by  three  several  warrants,  under  our  royal  hand,  our  advocate,  is 
allowed  and  authorized  to  pursue  the  foresaid  treasonable  crimes, 
or  any  one  or  other  of  them,  in  order  to  an  arbitrary  punishment, 
before  the  lords  of  our  privy  council ; and  to  pursue  the  same  to 

* Mr.  Roderick  M‘Kenzie  of  Dalvenan,  advocate-substitute  for  his  majesty’s  ad- 
vocate, is  the  prosecutor. 


MRS,  CAMPBELL. 


325 


the  defenders’  oaths  of  verity  : and  the  refusing  allegiance  to  us, 
the  native  sovereign ; the  owning,  or  refusing  to  disown,  dis- 
claim, and  renounce,  the  treasonable  combination  against  us  and 
our  authority,  called  the  solemn  league  and  covenant,  so  oft  con- 
demned by  our  laws  and  prQclamations  of  our  council,  by  which 
they  put  most  undutiful  and  treasonable  limitations  upon  the  due 
allegiance  which  they  owe  to  us,  are  crimes  of  a high  nature, 
and  severely  punishable  ; and  by  the  laws  and  acts  of  parliament 
of  this  kingdom,  the  withdrawing  from  their  own  parish  kirks, 
being  present  at  house  or  field  conventicles,  the  baptizing  and 
marrying  irregularly,  are  declared  to  be  seditious,  and  of  danger- 
ous consequence  ; and  the  not  communicating  once  in  the  year, 
and  not  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance,  the  suffering  of  conventi- 
cles in  their  house  or  lands,  are,  by  several  acts  of  parliament 
and  proclamations,  severely  punishable,  with  the  pains  and  pen- 
alties therein  expressed  ; and  the  refusing  to  depone  anent  con- 
venticles, persons  present  there,  and  circumstances  done  therein, 
or  resetting  or  intercommuning  with  rebels  or  fugitives,  are  pun- 
ishable with  fining,  close  imprisonment,  or  banishment  to  the 
plantations.” 

The  letters  next  proceed  to  bring  home  the  charges.  “ Nev- 
ertheless, it  is  of  verity  that  Mr.  James  Park,  Mr.  John  Stewart, 
Mr.  George  Meldrum  of  Crombie,  Mr.  Alexander  Dunbar,  Mr. 
James  Urquhart,  vagrant  preachers  ; Janet  Watson,  spouse  to  John 
Barber;  Elizabeth  Weemes,  Lady  Brea;  Jean  Campbell,  good- 
wife  of  Torrich  ; Ewin  Campbell,  lately  in  Calder  parish  ; Jean 
Thomson,  his.  spouse  ; Alexander  Campbell,  lately  there  ; Lilias 
Dunbar,  his  spouse  ; Jean  Taylor,  sometime  servant  to  the  good- 
wife  of  Torrich  ;*  . . . being  persons  of  seditious  and  pernicious 
principles,  highly  disaffected  to  us  and  our  government,  have 
most  treasonably  incited,  persuaded,  instigated,  and  encouraged 
several  persons  to  go  out  to  the  late  rebellion  at  Bothwell-bridge, 
in  June,  1679  years  ; did  supply  or  promised  to  supply  and  fur- 
nish them  with  money,  horse,  arms,  provisions,  for  carrying  on 
thereof ; kept  intelligence  and  correspondence  with  them  ; gave 
them  help  or  counsel  thereanent ; did  most  treasonably  conceal, 
harbor,  supply,  converse,  intercommune,  and  correspond  with, 
give  meat,  drink,  house,  harbor,  relief,  comfort,  and  counsel,  and 
do  favors  to  notor,  open,  and  manifest  traitors,  rebels,  fugitives, 
forfaulted  and  intercommuned  persons,  seditious  and  vagrant 
preachers,  or  such  who  were  actually  in  the  late  rebellion,  and 
had  been  ibdicted,  challenged,  or  pursued  therefor,  or  holden  re- 

* There  are  between  two  and  three  hundred  other  names. 

28 


326 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


pute,  and  known  to  them  to  have  been  therein  ; particularly  to 
Archibald,  late  earl  of  Argyll,  James  Nimmo,  Mr.  Robert  Martin, 
sometime  clerk  to  the  justice-court,  John  Hay  of  Park,  Mr.  Al- 
exander Fraser,  Mr.  Thomas  Hog,  Mr.  John  M^Gilligen,  [Mr. 
James]  Fraser  of  Brea,  Mr.  John  Hepburn,  Mr.  William  hPKay, 
Mr.  ^Alexander  Dunbar,  Mr.  James  Urquhart,  Mr.  James  Park, 
Mr  Thomas  Ross,  Mr.  John  Stewart,  Mr.  Duncan  Forbes,  Mr. 
William  Ramsay,  William  Cranston,  servant  in  Gutters,  or  one 
or  other  of  the  forfaulted  or  printed  rebels  and  fugitives  ; treated 
and  consulted  by  word,  writ,  or  message  with  them,  and  the  per- 
sons above  named,  and  others,  in  both  England,  Holland,  and 
this  kingdom,  for  carrying  on  the  late  horrid  and  execrable  plot 
against  our  sacred  person,  the  person  of  our  royal  brother,  and 
our  government  and  authority ; contributed,  or  promised  to  con- 
tribute, money  and  provisions  for  carrying  on  thereof ; did  hear, 
conceal,  and  not  reveal  treasonable  proposals,  discourses,  contri- 
butions offered  and  sought  thereanent,  or  for  them,  and  against 
us  and  our  government ; have  and  do  maintain  these  treasonable 
positions,  that  it  is  lawful  for  subjects  to  enter  into  leagues  and 
covenants,  and  to  take  up  arms  against  us  and  our  authority,  to 
suspend,  deprive,  and  depose  us  from  the  style,  honor,  and  kingly 
name,  of  the  imperial  crown  of  this  realm,  and  from  the  exercise 
of  our  royal  government ; have  and  do  put  limitations  upon  their 
due  obedience  and  allegiance  to  us  ; have  maliciously  spoken, 
written,  or  otherwise  expressed  these  their  treasonable  inten- 
tions ; have  attempted  and  endeavored  the  suspension  and  the 
diversion  of  the  right  of  succession,  and  debarring  our  lawful 
successor  ; have  plotted  and  contrived  against  us  and  our  gov- 
ernment ; have  uttered  slanderous  and  seditious  speeches  against 
us,  our  council,  and  proceedings  ; have  and  do  decline  the  judg- 
ment of  us  and  our  council ; have  endeavored  the  innovation  of 
our  government ; have  impugned  or  sought  the  diminution  there- 
of ; have  made  and  told  leasings  to,  of,  and  betwixt  us  and  our 
people  ; have  concealed  and  not  revealed  treason,  seditious  and 
treasonable  speeches  and  proposals  ; have  withdrawn  from,  and 
not  kept  and  joined  in,  the  public  ordinances  and  ordinary  meet- 
ings of  divine  worship  in  these  our  parish  churches  ; have  been 
present  at  house  or  field  conventicles,  where  several  seditious 
preachers  did  take  upon  them  to  preach,  pray,  and  expone  scrip- 
ture ; have  married  and  baptized  disorderly ; have  not  communi- 
cated once  a year ; have  or  do  refuse  and  delay  to  depone  anent 
conventicles,  persons  present  thereat,  things  done  therein,  arid 
anent  receipting  and  intercommuning  with  fugitives  and  rebels ; 


MRS.  CAMPBELL. 


327 


have  and  do  refuse  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  required,  and 
offered  to  swear  and  renew  the  covenant,  or  refuse  to  disclaim, 
disown,  or  renounce  the  same  ; have  expressed  words  and  sen- 
tences to  stir  up  the  people  to  a dislike  of  us,  our  prerogative  and 
supremacy,  and  the  government  of  church  and  state  ; and  the 
said  ministers  did  pray,  preach,  and  the  persons  above  named 
did  hear  treasonable  and  seditious  doctrine,  and  have  suffered 
and  heard  conventicles  in  their  houses  and  on  their  lands,  whereby 
the  said  and  the  other  persons  above  complained  upon  have  di- 
rectly contravened  the  foresaid  laws  and  acts  of  parliament ; have 
committed  and  are  guilty  of  one  or  other  of  the  crimes  particu- 
larly above  mentioned,  and  are  art  and  part  thereof,  or  accessory 
thereto.” 

These  are  heavy  accusations,  but  the  most  of  them  are  wholly 
unfounded.  The  only  points  in  which  Mrs.  Campbell,  or  indeed 
any  of  the  nonconformists  in  the  north,  had  violated  the  laws 
then  existing,  were  their  not  attending  the  parish  kirk,  their  be- 
ing present  at  house  conventicles,  and  their  hospitably  entertain- 
ing the  nonconforming  ministers.  But,  like  the  persecutors  of 
the  primitive  church,  who  covered  the  Christians  with  the  skins 
of  wild  beasts,  and  then  exposed  them  to  be  torn  in  pieces  by  the 
fury  of  dogs,  the  persecuting  government  of  the  Stuarts  was  in 
the  practice  of  charging  the  presbyterians  with  crimes  of  which 
they  were  altogether  innocent,  with  the  view  of  making  them 
odious,  and  of  giving  the  color  of  justice  to  the  cruelty  with 
which  they  were  treated.  Such  has  been  thp  policy  of  the  per- 
secutor in  every  age.  He  has  never  avowedly  persecuted  the 
disciples  of  Jesus  on  the  simple  ground  of  their  being  the  disci- 
ples of  Jesus.  He  has  first  calumniously  accused  them  of  sedi- 
tion, rebellion,  or  other  flagitious  acts,  which  the  magistrate  is 
bound  to  punish,  and  then,  under  this  pretext,  has  proceeded  to 
wreak  his  vengeance  upon  them. 

After  charging  Mrs.  Campbell  and  her  associates  with  the 
crimes  just  now  specified,  tliQ  letters  proceed  as  follows  : “ Which 
being  verified  and  proven  by  their  own  oath,  or  otherwise,  they 
ought  to  be  punished  with  the  pains  above  mentioned,  and  with 
such  arbitrary  punishments  as  the  lords  of  our  privy  council 
shall  think  fit  to  decern  and  determine  ; and  if  they  shall  refuse 
to  depone  upon  the  haill  or  any  part  of  this  libel,  they  ought  to 
be  hodden  as  confessed  thereupon,  conform  to  the  letters  and  war- 
rants direct  under  our  royal  hand  for  that  effect ; and  punished 
therefor  with  such  arbitrary  pains  as  the  privy  council,  or  their 
committee  or  commissioners,  shall  think  fit,  and  the  crimes  de- 
serve, to  the  terror  of  others  to  commit  the  like  hereafter.” 


328 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


On  hearing  of  the  intended  meeting  of  the  commissioners  of 
the  privy  council,  a considerable  number  of  the  persons  sum- 
moned to  appear  before  them  fled,  among  whom  was  Mrs.  Camp- 
bell’s husband.  Having  been  inte.rcommuned  for  hearing  and 
countenancing  the  persecuted  presbyterian  ministers,  he  deemed 
it  prudent  to  flee  for  his  safety.  He  fled,  first  to  Strathnaver, 
and  afterward  to  Ireland.  Mrs.  Campbell  remaining  at  home  to 
wait  upon  her  mother-in-law,  Mrs.  Jean  Campbell,  who  was  dan- 
gerously ill,  was  apprehended,  and  carried  prisoner  to  Elgin.  At 
the  meeting  of  the  commissioners  of  the  privy  council  on  the  3d 
of  February,  the  roll  of  delinquents  was  called  and  their  libel 
read,  the  tenor  of  which  has  already  been  laid  before  our  read- 
ers. On  the  5th,  Mrs.  Campbell  was  brought  before  them.  The 
only  part  of  the  libel  proved  against  her  w^as,  that  she  “ had  with- 
drawn from,  and  not  kept  and  joined  in,  the  public  ordinances 
and  ordinary  meetings  of  divine  worship  in  her  own  parish 
church.”  Mr.  Donald  McPherson,  minister  of  the  parish  of  Cal- 
der,  in  which  she  resided,  gave  in  a list  of  disorderly  persons  in 
vis  parish,  which  consisted  of  only  seven  individuals,  among 
whom  are  ‘‘  Alexander  Campbell,  who,”  says  he,  “ has  removed, 
*ind  Lilias  Dunbar  his  wife,  who  for  the  most  part  remains  in 
ihe  said  parish,  but  always  stays  from  ordinances  ; Jean  Camp- 
bell, goodwife  of  'Torrich,  who  has  been  this  long  time  bygone 
valetudinary;  and  Jean  Taylor,  servant  to  the  foresaid  Jean 
Campbell,  who  has  now  removed  from  the  foresaid  parish,  but 
during  her  abode  always  abstracted  from  ordinances.”  Mr. 
McPherson  being  solemnly  sworn,  deponed  that  the  above  was  a 
correct  list  of  all  who  were  disorderly  in  his  parish-;  and  that  all 
of  them,  ‘‘  except  Jean  Campbell,  goodwife  of  Torrich,  who  is  at 
the  point  of  death,”  and  Lilias  Dunbar,  who  waited  upon  her,  had 
fled,  he  knew  not  whither,  on  hearing  that' the  committee  of  the 
privy  council  was  to  sit  at  Elgin.  The  elders  of  the  parish  of 
Calder,  being  solemnly  sworn  and  interrogated,  also  “ deponed 
that  Jean  Campbell,  the  goodwife  of  Torrich,  and  Lilias  Dunbar, 
her  good-daughter,  spouse  to  Alexander  Campbell  of  Torrich, 
who  has  fled,  did  and  does  withdraw.”* 

Being  brought  before  the  commissioners,  Mrs.  Campbell  was 
examined  upon  oath.  To  the  question  whether  she  attended  her 
parish  church,  she  an-swered  in  the  negative ; and  being  further 
interrogated  how  long  she  had  withdrawn  ffom  it,  she  replied, 
“ For  the  last  six  years.”  To  the  question  whether  she  had  been 
present  at  conventicles,  she  answered  in  the  affirmative.  It  be- 
* Warrants  of  Privy  Council. 


MRS.  CAMPBELL. 


329 


ing  then  demanded  whether  she  would  engage  to  attend  the  par- 
ish church  in  future,  she  replied  that  she  could  not  come  under 
such  an  obligation.  “Are  you  then  willing,”  said  the  commis- 
sioners, “ to  find  security  to  leave  the  kingdom,  or  engage  to 
keep  the  church?”  To  this  she  answered  by  expressing  her 
readiness  to  leave  her  native  land,  rather  than  come  under  an 
engagement  which  appeared  to  her  to  be  inconsistent  with  her 
duty  to  God,  and  to  find  such  security  as  might  be  required. 
Her  depositions,  subscribed  by  her  own  hand,  which  are  pre- 
served in  the  minutes  of  the  proceedings  of  the  commissioners, 
are  as  folio Vi^s  :• — 

February  5,  1685. 

“ Lilias  Dunbar,  spouse  to  Alexander  Campbell,  sometime  at 
Calder,  [being]  solemnly  sworn,  depones  she  has  not  kept  the 
kirk  these  six  years  past,  and  has  been  at  conventicles,  and  is 
not  free  to  engage  to  keep  the  kirk  in  time  coming ; and  there- 
fore is  content  to  find  caution  to  depart  this  kingdom  betwixt  and 
the  first  of  August  next,  she  being  now  with  child,  or  otherwise 
to  keep  the  kirk,  and  not  to  return  to  the  kingdom,  unless  she 
live  regularly  therein.  “ Lilias  Dunbar.” 

Under  this  examination,  Mrs.  Campbell  displayed  a dignity 
of  bearing,  and  a superier  intelligence,  which  struck  the  adver- 
saries with  conviction,  and  the  judges  with  admiration,  one  of 
whom  spoke  in  her  favor  in  the  face  of  the  court.  Her  uncom- 
promising fortitude  also  stands  favorably  contrasted  with  the 
timidity  of  the  most  of  those  brought  before  the  commissioners 
on  that  day,  and  on  the  other  days,  who,  with  a few  honorable 
exceptions,  solemnly  swore  that  they  would  keep  the  kirk  in 
time  coming.  She  was  formally  banished  from  the  kingdom  of 
Scotland  by  the  following  act  of  the  commissioners  of  council  : 
“ Elgin,  11th  February,  1685.  The  lords  having  considered  the 
depositions  of  Lilias  Dunbar,  spouse  to  Alexander  Campbell, 
sometime  in  Calder,  with  the  libel  against  her,  they,  in  respect 
she  has  been  irregular  and  disorderly,  and  will  not  engage  to 
keep  the  kirk,  banish  her  forth  of  this  kingdom,  and  ordain  her 
to  enact  herself  to  go  out  thereof,  under  the  pain  of  one  thousand 
merks.”*  She  immediately  found  the  security  required.  Mr. 

Warrants  of  Privy  Council.  Mrs.  Campbell’s  friend,  Jean  Taylor,  who  was 
servant  to  Lady  Muirtown  at  that  time,  was  similarly  treated.  On  being  examined 
by  the  commissioners,  she  declared  that  she  had  not  kept  the  parish  kirk,  refused  to 
engage  to  keep  it  in  future,  confessed  that  she  had  been  at  several  conventicles,  and 
had  heard  Mr.  Alexander  Dunbar  preach  at  Lethin,  and  Mr.  James  Urquhart  at  his 
own  house,  but  refused  to  depone  upon  oath.  Accordingly,  on  the  same  11th  of 

28'' 


S30 


THE  LADIES'OF  THE  COVENANT. 


Jolin  Campbell,  of  Langnidderry.  her  brother-in-law,  who 
attended  her  during  the  proceedings  against  her  at  Elgin,  readily 
became  surety  that  she  should  depart  out  of  Scotland  within  the 
time  specified. 

It  may  be  observed  that  the  cojnmissioners  of  council  excused 
the  absence  of  her  mother-in-law,  Mrs.  Jean  Campbell,  upon  a 
testimonial  signed  by  Mr.  M‘Pherson,  minister  of  Calder,  and 
three  of  the  elders  of  that  parish,  bearing  that  -she  was  then  con- 
fined to  her  bed,  and  in  so  low  and  weak  a condition  of  body  as 
to  be  unable  to  travel  any  distance  from  her  own  house  without 
imminent  hazard  of  her  life.  They  also  excused  the  absence  of 
Mr.  Campbell,  who  is  said,  in  the  minute  of  the  court,  to  be 
*'  now  in  Ireland but  the  ground  upon  which  he  was  excused 
is  not  stated. 

Similar  sentences  were  passed  upon  several  others  who  re- 
fused to  engage  to  attend  their  parish  churches  in  future  ; and 
on  the  same  11th  of  February,  the  lords  publicly  required  and 
commanded  the  sheriffs,  bailies  of  regalities,  and  their  deputies, 
magistrates  of  burghs,  and  other  inferior  judges,  to  put  the  laws 
vigorously  in  execution  against  church  dissenters,  and  all  irreg- 
ular and  disorderly  persons,  from  time  to  time ; and  to  imprison 
their  persons  till  they  sign  and  take  the  bond  of  peace  and  regu- 
larity, and  oblige  themselves  to  keep  the  kirk  in  time  coming,  or 
till  the  privy  council  give  order  concerning  them,  and  especially 
against  the  delinquents  now  cited  before  them,  in  case  they  keep 
not  the  kirk  hereafter,  agreeably  to  their  own  engagements. 

The  vigor  with  which  the  lord  commissioners  proceeded 
against  the  nonconformists  in  the  north,  gave  great  satisfaction 
to  the  established  clergy  in  that  quarter.  On  the  same  day  on 
which  sentence  of  banishment  was  pronounced  upon  Mrs.  Camp- 
bell and  several  others,  “ the  bishop  and  clergy  of  the  diocese 
of  Moray  attended  the  lords  in  a body,  and  gave  them  their 
hearty  thanks  for  the  great  pains  and  diligence  they  had  used 
for  the  good  and  encouragement  of  the  church  and  clergy  in  this 
place,  and  for  reducing  the  people  to  order  and  regularity  ; and 
begged  the  lords  would  allow  them  to  represent  their  sense  and 
s^ratitude  thereof,  to  the  lords  of  his  majesty’s  most  honorable 
privy  council.'”* 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  that  part  of  Mrs.  Campbell’s  diary 

Febiniary,  sentence  of  banishment  from  the  kingdom  was  pronounced  upon  her,  and 
it  was  also  ordained  that  she  should  be  detained  prisoner  till  she  should  be  transport- 
ed. But  on  petitioning  the  commissioners  she  was  set  at  liberty,  upon  her  finding 
caution  to  depart  the  kingdom  betwixt  that  time  and  the  first  of  May  following,  un- 
der the  pain  of  500  merks.  * W airants  of  Privy  Council 


331 


MRS.  CAMPBELL 

wKicli  relates  to  the  story  of  her  persecution,  is  lost.*  We, 
however,  meet  with  subsequent  occasional  allusions  to  it.  She 
felt  it  to  be  ^ matter  of  thankfulness  to  God,  in  afterward  looking 
back  upon  that  period  of  her  life,  that  she  had  been  enabled  to 
witness  a good  confession,  at  a time  when  many  had  yielded 
through  fear;  and  acknowledged  that  the  afflictions  which  had 
befallen  the  church  had,  by  the  Divine  blessing,  been  the  means 
of  promoting  her  spiritual  improvement.  On  this  subject  she 
thus  writes:  “May  24,  1691,  being  the  Lord’s  day.  I cried 
unto  the  Lord  that,  if  he  would  lengthen  my  days,  he  would 
make  me  [live]  more  for  himself ; that  he  would  smell  a savor 
of  rest  in  my  dwelling,  and  that  there  might  be  a savor  of  God 
where  I should  be.  I mourned  when  I remembered  how  little 
of  this  had  been.  Then  the  Lord  gave  me  ease,  in  making  me 
look  back  upon  what  special  care  he  had  of  me  (although  some 
things  had  been  denied  me),  in  giving  food  and  raiment  to  me 
and  mine  ; in  helping  me  to  keep  the  word  of  his  patience  ; and 
in  keeping  me  in  the  hour  of  temptation.  In  the  evening  I was 
made  to  remember  the  Lord’s  great  condescension  to  me,  in 
gaming  my  froward  will  to  submit  to  his  holy  will,  as  to  my 
greatest  troubles,  and  the  sad  dispensation  which  the  church  of 
God  in  this  land  had  been  trysted,  in  my  time  ; in  letting  me  see 
a spiritual  good  and  advantage  in  them,  so  that  I have  been 
ashamed  of  my  own  miscarriages.  I was  made  to  see  that  there 
was  no  God  like  to  him  who  does  all  things  well,  and  works  out 
of  contraries,  giving  meat  out  of  the  eater,  and  sweet  out  of  the 
strong.” 

Contrary  to  their  expectations,  Mrs.  Campbell  and  her  fellow- 
confessors,  who  had  received  sentence  of  banishment,  were  re- 
lieved from  the  necessity  of  leaving  Scotland.  Charles  II.  dying 
during  the  sitting  of  the  commissioners,  and  his  brother,  James, 
duke  of  York,  succeeding  to  the  throne,  the  court  quickly  rose  ; 
and  though  James  was  a bloody  persecutor,  exceeding  in  cruelty 
his  deceased  brother,  yet  he  and  his  government  were  so  actively 
employed  in  imprisoning,  banishing,  and  executing  the  noncon- 
formists in  the  south,  and  in  crushing  the  insurrection  of  the  earl 
of  Argyll,  which  took  place  soon  after,  that  Mrs.  Campbell  and  the 
presbyterians  in  the  north  were  overlooked.  Afterward,  when 
James,  with  the  view  of  paving  the  way  for  establishing  in  Britain 

* The  Rev.  John  Russell,  Stamford,  Canada  West,  in  the  letter  to  the  author, 
formerly  referred  to,  says,  “ Mrs.  Campbell’s  diary,  before  a transcript  of  it  was 
taken,  fell  into  the  hands  of  persons  not  friendly  to  the  cause  for  which  she  suffered, 
who  mutilated  it  by  cutting  out  some  leaves.” 


332 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


tlie  popish  religion,  of  which  he  was  a bigoted  adherent,  began  to 
court  the  favor  of  dissenters,  and  to  emit  proclamations  indemnify- 
ing them  for  all  pains  and  penalties  incurred  for  nonconformity, 
this,  which  afforded  relief  to  many  who  were  suffering  in  Scotland 
for  conscience’  sake,  furnished  another  cause  of  her  remaining 
unmolested.  And  lastly,  the  revolution  of  1688,  which,  by  the 
expulsion  of  James  from  the  throne,  and  the  accession  of  the 
illustrious  William,  prince  of  Orange,  put  an  end  to  the  persecu- 
tion, and  established  the  liberties  of  the  subjects  upon  a perma- 
nent basis,  brought  her  troubles,  and  the  troubles  of  Scotland,  in 
this  respect,  to  a termination. 

Mrs.  Campbell’s  own  experience  of  the  tyranny  of  the  Stuarts, 
and  especially  her  sympathy  with  others  who  suffered  more  se- 
verely than  herself  for  their  constancy  in  the  cause  of  Christ, 
made  her  hail  the  revolution  as  a wonderful  deliverance  vouch- 
safed by  God  to  the  church.  On  this  subject,  she  has  the  fol- 
fowing  entry  in  her  diary:  “June  14,  1691. — I set  myself  to 
be  comforted  in  the  favorable  and  wonderful  steps  of  providence, 
which  had  come  to  pass  in  this  land  in  behalf  of  the  church  of 
God  within  these  three  years  past The  provi- 

dence of  God  has  been  wonderful  in  these  lands,  since  that  time 
[King  James  VII. ’s  toleration],  in  the  Lord’s  bringing  a ravenous 
bird  from  the  East  ;*  such  he  was  to  the  enemies  of  his  church, 
but  a glorious  deliverer  to  her  friends;  a man  to  execute  his 
council,  from  a foreign  country,  by  breaking  the  sceptre - of  the 
ruler  and  the  staff  of  the  oppressor.”  But  still  she  rejoiced  in 
that  event  with  trembling.  The  prevalence  of  sin  around  her, 
the  small  success  of  the  gospel,  and  the  little  disposition  which 
existed  to  make  a suitable  improvement  of  this  great  deliverance, 
excited  apprehensions  in  her  mind  that  Providence  might  again 
frown  upon  Scotland.  In  the  same  part  of  her  diary,  she  observes 
that,  when  thinking  of  that  great  deliverance,  she  “ could  not 
get  comfort,  but  was  in  fear  of  a common  calamity  in  the  land, 
and  a strait  which  Zion  had  to  pass  through.  This,”  she  adds, 
“ was  an  old  fear  with  me,  and  often  renewed,  that  proceeded 
not  from  the  dictates  of  my  own  mind,  which  is  but  weak,  erring, 
and  sinful,  but  from  a deep  impression  which  some  places  of 
scripture  made  on  my  spirit,  when  I was  exercised  in  prayer- — 
from  abounding  of  sin,  and  the  many  evidences  of  God’s  displeas- 
ure ; so  that  I had  much  ground  to  fear,  though  not  to  prophesy. 
And  never  more  ground  to  fear  than  since  the  yoke  of  persecution 
began  to  break  four  years  ago,  by  King  James’s  liberty  of  con- 
*'  William,  prince  of  Orange. 


MRS.  CAMPBELL. 


333 


science,  which  was  like  an  untimely  birth,  which  tended  to 
death  rather  than  to  life.  Zion  has  been  languishing  in  this  land, 
and  her  king  in  a great  measure  absent  as  to  his  spiritual  and 
powerful  presence  in  his  public  ordinances,  since  that  time.” 

While  highly  esteeming  all  the  nonconforming  ministers  in 
the  north — of  the  most  of  whom  she  makes  honorable  mention 
in  her  diary,  Mrs.  Campbell  regarded  with  peculiar  veneration 
one  of  them — the  celebrated  Mr.  Thomas  Hog,  of  Kiltearn,  both 
on  account  of  his  eminence  as  a minister  of  the  gospel,  and  be- 
cause he,  of  all  other  ministers,  had  been  most  instrumental  in 
promoting  both  her  own  and  her  husband’s  spiritual  interests. 
His  being  forced  by  persecution  to  leave  Morayshire  occasioned 
her  deep  sorrow,  and  it  was  her  earnest  prayer  that  he  might  be 
restored  to  that  part  of  the  church.  Her  prayer  was  answered, 
and  his  restoration  to  his  old  parish  afforded  her  unfeigned  joy. 
Writing,  July  3,  1691,  she  says,  “ In  the  afternoon  a friend  came 
to  me,  who  told  me  that  Mr.  Thomas  Hog  was  come  to  Moray, 
and  was  at  present  at  Muirtown.  This  was  desirable  news  to 
me,  which  I had  longed  and  prayed  for ; he  being  one  in  whom 
there  was  much  of  the  Lord  to  be  seen,  and  who  of  all  others, 
had  done  most  good  (by  the  blessing  of  God)  to  my  husband’s 
soul  and  to  mine,  and  was,  I may  say,  an  interpreter  one  of  a 
thousand.  When  I got  an  opportunity  to  retire,  I looked  up  to 
the  Jjord  to  bless  this  man’s  coming,  and  entreated  of  the  Lord 
to  put  a song  of  praise  in  my  mouth.  These  words  were  brought 
to  me,  ‘ He  strengthens  the  spoiled  against  the  strong  ; He  turneth 
the  shadow  of  death  into  the  morning.’  Then  I saw  the  first 
part  of  this  scripture  largely  made  out  in  him ; so  that  it  might 
afford  matter  of  great  praise  and  thankfulness,  that  the  God  of 
power  had  strengthened  him  even  when  spoiled  of  his  lovely 
flock,  and  had  now  given  him  victory  over  the  strong — even  king 
and  council — who  imprisoned  him  thrice,  and  then  banished  him 
Irom  his  native  kingdom  for  the  gospel’s  sake ; and  that  now  he 
was  returned  with  honor  (having  kept  the  faith  and  a good  con- 
science) to  exercise  his  ministry  in  that  parish  where  the  Lord 
at  first  placed  him,  and  where  he  blessed  his  labors.  The  dan- 
gers and  troubles  under  which  the  Lord  supported  and  relieved 
him,  enlarged  my  heart  in  love  and  praise  to  God,  who  exercises 
wonderful,  infinite  wisdom,  love,  and  power,  toward  his  servants 
and  people.” 

On  the  7th  of  July,  Mrs.  Campbell  and  her  husband  went  to 
Muirtown  to  visit  Mr.  Hog,  where  she  met  with  several  pious 
intimate  friends,  whose  society  was  very  refreshing  to  her.  The 


334 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


next  day  she  had  an  opportunity  of  conversing  with  Mr.  Hog,  to 
whom  she  had  not  spoken  for  eight  years  before.  As  he  was 
very  infirm,  and  as  several  other  persons  were  waiting  to  speak 
with  him,  there  were  only  two  particulars  about  which  she  was 
desirous  of  unburdening  her  mind  to  him  at  that  time.  In  the  first 
place,  she  wished  to  know  his  thoughts  concerning  her  state  ; 
and  in  the  second  place,  she  wished  to  tell  him  some  of  her 
secret  spiritual  troubles,  with  respect  to  which  she  could  not 
attain  to  submission.  As  to  the  first,  he  seemed  to  be  displeased 
with  her  for  putting  to  him  such  a question,  and  refused  to  let 
her  know  what  were  his  thoughts  respecting  her  state.  xAs  to 
the  other  points,  the  little  he  said  in  answer  was  by  way  of  re- 
proof, telling  her  that  the  want  of  submission  proceeded  from  the 
pride  and  stubbornness  of  her  spirit.  Mr.  Campbell  having  re- 
turned home  in  the  afternoon,  she  stayed  a few  days  in  the  fam- 
ily of  Muirtown,  in  which  there  was  much  of  the  savor  of  God ; 
and  during  that  time  she  obtained  relief  from  the  spiritual  troubles 
which  pressed  upon  her  spirit.  On  the  morning  of  the  day  on 
which  she  left  Muirtown  for  Torrich,  which  was  the  11th  of  July, 
having  had  a private  interview  with  Mr.  Hog,  she  told  him  of 
the  submissive  state  of  mind  to  which,  through  the  goodness  of 
God  toward  her  the  two  preceding  days,  she  had  attained  in  ref- 
erence to  Avhat  troubled  her,  and  expressed  her  fears  that  some 
sharp  trial  was  awaiting  her,  for  which  this  submissive  temper 
was  preparing  her,  and  which  would  test  its  reality.  But  he 
disapproved  of  her  giving  place  to  such  thoughts,  charging  her 
Avith  authority,  as  Avell  as  in  much  love,  to  beware  of  anxious 
thoughts  about  to-morrow,  and  earnestly  urged  her  to  a confi- 
dent and  consistent  trusting  in  God,  quoting  the  words  of  Job, 
“ Though  he  slay  me,  yet  will  I trust  in  him.”  “ Thus,”  says 
she,  “ did  the  blessed  man  press  me  to  live  the  life  of  faith,  and,” 
she  adds,  took  leave  of  me,  embracing  me  as  a father  does  his 
child.” 

Over  the  death  of  this  eminently  holy  man  she  was  soon  called 
to  mourn.  In  her  diary,  that  event  is  recorded,  and  the  character 
of  Hog  draAvn  with  much  feeling.  The  passage  is  deserving  of 
being  quoted,  both  from  the  pleasing  simplicity  with  which  it  is 
Avritten,  and  because  it  contains  the  estimate,  formed  by  an  in- 
telligent contemporary,  of  a minister  highly  venerated  in  his  day, 
and  whom  VVodrow  calls  “that  great,  and,  I had  almost  said, 
apostolical  servant  of  Christ,  Mr.  Thomas  Hog.”*  “ I heard,” 
says  she,  “ of  Mr.  Thomas  Hog’s  being  removed  from  time  to 
* Wodrow’s  Correspondence,  vol.  i.,  p.  166. 


MRS.  CAMPBELL. 


335 


eternity.*  It  was  [not]  a surprise  to  me,  though  great  matter  of 
lamentation.  My  husband  and  I had  been  seeing  him  in  August. 
AVe  then  saw  that  he  was  near  the  end  of  his  journey,  by  his 
spirit  being  transported  with  the  hopes  of  glory,  and  his  bodily 
health  and  strength  failed.  He  endured  much  trouble  in  his  body 
two  months  before  his  death,  which  was  dark  and  afflicting  to 
me.  As  I was  enabled,  my  prayer  was  to  God  for  him,  in  the 
day  of  his  calamity,  whose  reproof  had  been  a kindness  to  me, 
and  his  smiting  an  excellent  oil  that  did  not  break  my  head. 
The  tongue  of  the  learned  was  given  him,  indeed,  to  speak  a 
word  in  season  to  the  weary.  He  had  the  heart  of  the  wise, 
which  taught  his  mouth,  and  added  learning  to  his  lips.  He 
gave  reproofs  of  instruction,  which,  by  his  Master’s  blessing, 
were  the  way  of  life.  He  walked  so  with  God  that  his  conversa- 
tion shone  to  the  glory  of  his  heavenly  Father.  He  had  a large 
measure  of  the  spirit  of  God,  by  which  he  knew  the  deep  things 
of  God.  And  it  was  given  him  to  know  the  mysteries  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  He  had  a divine  experimental  understanding 
of  the  Scriptures,  of  the  work  of  conversion,  and  cases  of  con- 
science ; so  that  they  whose  ears  heard  him  blessed  him.  He 
was  a Caleb  indeed,  who  followed  the  Lord  fully  in  his  ministry 
in  prison,  in  banishment,  in  strange  lands,  and  unto  death.  Even 
the  haters  of  godliness  were  forced  to  own  that  God  was  in  him 
of  a truth,  and  that  he  kept  his  integrity.  It  is  not  my  design  to 
praise  men,  and,  therefore,  I will  drop  this  subject,  though  it  be 
a large  field  ; [and  shall]  only  further  observe,  that  I never  knew 
one  that  came  his  length,  and  I wish  I had  ground  to  believe 
that  I shall  yet  know  them.  I can  not  forget  him  who  was  the 
bridegroom’s  friend  ; who,  when  I was  lying  in  my  blood,  told 
me  of  my  hazard,  and  where  there  was  help  for  me  ; and,  with 
the  authority  of  his  Master,  charged  me  not  to  delay,  showing 
me  that  delays,  in  a matter  of  so  great  importance,  came  from  the 
devil.  He  preached  Christ  and  conversion  to  me  in  private  confer- 
ence, which  had  blessed  effects  on  me.  When  under  the  greatest 
trouble  I ever  felt  with  respect  to  the  case  of  my  soul,  in  March, 
1677,  he  being  then  a prisoner  at  Forres,  I went  to  speak  to  him. 
I was  like  one  durnffl,  and  could  not  utter  one  word  of  my  case 
to  him ; yet  he  ^pake  to  me  as  if  I had  told  him  of  it,  and  said, 
when  I parted  with  him,  ‘ Fear  not,  ye  seek  Jesus.’  Which  word 
begot  some  hopes  in  me,  which  did  not  altogether  leave  me,  until 
I got  the  manifestation  of  Christ  to  my  soul,  which  was  within 
six  weeks  afterward.  Yea,  I do  not  remember  any  time  I saw 
* Mr.  Hog  died  on  the  4th  of  January,  1692. 


336 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


him  but  I got  good  by  him,  and  in  the  end  more  than  in  the  be- 
ginning, I can  not  show  at  large  what  was  the  exercise  of  my 
spirit  upon  hearing  of  his  death.  When  it  was  told  me,  I spoke 
not  a word,  till  I went  to  the  Lord  in  secret  and  mourned  before 
him.  I was  four  days  much  troubled,  but  strove  against  exces- 
sive grief ; and  I have  reason  to  bless  my  Rock,  who  gave  me 
a composal  frame  of  spirit,  and  made  my  soul  to  profit  by  the 
death  of  this  blessed  man.  His  removal  made  the  earth  desolate 
in  my  esteem,  and  raised  my  affections  from  things  below  to 
things  above,  where  Christ  and  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  per- 
fect are.  In  my  mourning  I was  made  to  bless  the  Lord,  who 
had  put  an  end  to  the  sufferings  of  his  faithful  servant,  and  to 
submit  to  his  will  who  had  s.aid,  ‘He  that  will  be  my  servant, 
let  him  follow  me  ; and  where  I am,  there  shall  my  servant  be.’ 
I T*emembered,  to  my  comfort,  how  this  blessed  man,  the  last 
day  r saw  him,  kindly  embraced  me,  and  rejoicing  in  spirit,  said 
to  me,  ‘ You  and  I shall  be  together  with  the  Lord  for  ever.’ 
That  night,  being  the  last  night  I was  in  his  house,  my  sleep  de- 
parted from  me  ; upon  which  I rose  at  three  o’clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  had  two  hours  of  sweet  communion  with  God  in  prayer. 

. After  that  time  I did  not  see  this  blessed  man’s 
face  any  more.  He  being  very  sick  that  morning,  and  not  fit 
for  speaking,  my  husband  and  I left  him.  I then  looked  on  what 
was  given  me  that  morning  as  given  to  prepare  me  for  his  death. 
The  day  before  he  died,  my  thoughts  were  taken  up  with  him  ; 
and  these  words  in  Job  were  brought  to  my  mind  in  relation  to 
him,  ‘ that  he  should  go  to  his  grave  in  a full  age,  as  a shock 
of  corn  cometh  in,  in  his  season which  was  quickly  fulfilled. 
Having  served  God  in  his  generation,  he  went  to  his  grave  in 
peace,  and  pleasantly  gave  up  the  ghost.  Though  he  endured 
much  pain  in  his  body  before,  yet  at  the  hour  of  his  death  he 
had  ease,  and  went  out  of  the  world  praising  and  rejoicing.” 

From  the  whole  of  Mrs.  Campbell’s  diary,  it  is  evident  that 
she  greatly  delighted  in  secret  prayer ; and  to  find  time  for  that 
duty,  she  was  in  the  habit  of  rising  very  early,  that  the  exercises 
of  devotion  might  be  no  obstruction  to  her  performing  such  house- 
hold duties  as  devolved  upon  her.  “ Some  of  her  acquaintance 
expressed  surprise  that  she  who  had  time  at  her  command,  and 
was  not  obliged  to  labor,  should  so  abridge  her  hours  of  sleep  ; 
to  which  she  replied,  that  she  did  not  wish  to  give  the  enemies 
of  religion  occasion  to  say  that  she  neglected  her  worldly  mat- 
ters through  attention  to  religious  duties.”* 

* Traditional  information  communicated  by  the  Rev,  John  Russell,  Stamford,  Caii' 
ada  W est. 


MRS.  CAMPBELL. 


337 


The  concluding  part  of  her  diary  contains  few  facts  respecting 
her  subsequent  history.  It  is  chiefly  occupied  in  describing  her 
religious  experience.  Writing  toward  the  latter  part  of  her  life, 
ehe  complains  that  she  had  been  “ for  several  years  seeking  the 
Lord,  and  still  tossed  with  fears  that  the  foundation  was  not  right;” 
and  that  “ after  several  years,  when  the  church  was  filled  with 
presbyterian  ministers,  her  darkness  and  deadness  became  more 
dreadful  to  her,  so  that  ordinances  were  to  her,  for  the  most  part, 
no  small  burden.  When  I spoke  to  ministers,”  she  adds,  “ they 
all  said  my  help  was  not  to  be  found  in  them.  Yet  this  was  ob- 
servable, that  such  as  were  most  zealous  for  the  purity  and  the  in- 
terests of  Christ,  were  most  comforting  to  my  soul  in  public  and 
private  duties,  but  they  could  not  cure  my  wound.  Therefore  I 
continued  solitary  for  many  days.”  During  this  period  she  was 
in  a very  wxak  state  of  health,  and  her  bodily  indisposition,  com- 
bined with  a melancholy  temperament — for  she  informs  us  that 
“ her  natural  temper  inclined  to  melancholy” — no  doubt  contrib- 
uted greatly  to  produce  those  unhappy  apprehensions  with  re- 
spect to  her  interest  in  Christ,  which  so  greatly  afflicted  her. 
At  last,  however,  she  was  relieved,  by  being  enabled  to  take  a 
more  just  and  encouraging  view  of  the  gospel.  “ After  continu- 
ing,” says  she,  “ a considerable  time  in  this  way,  thus  tossed  with 
tempests,  and  not  comforted,  some  words  of  scripture  were  brought 
to  my  mind,  which  were  made  use  of  for  keeping  me  from  utter-^ 
ly  despairing  and  giving  over,  viz.  : ‘ I came  not  to  call  the  righ- 
teous, but  sinners  to  repentance.’ — ‘ Look  unto  me,  all  ye  ends 
of  the  earth,  and  be  ye  saved.’— The  whole  need  not  a phys- 
ician, but  they  that  are  sick.’  Thus,  in  my  extremity,  my  spirit 
was  in  some  measure  supported.  But  afterward,  when  new  dark- 
ness and  fears  filled  my  soul,  I was  no  ways  able  to  draw  com- 
fort from  these  words,  unless  they  were  conveyed  with  new 
power.  On  a certain  night,  after  sad  and  affecting  fears,  which 
men  or  angels  could  not  allay,  these  words  came  with  power  to 
my  soul,  ‘ Be  careful  for  nothing  ; but  in  everything  by  prayer  and 
supplication,  with  thanksgiving,  make  your  requests  known  unto 
God ; and  the  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  understanding, 
shall  keep  your  hearts  and  minds  by  Jesus  Christ.’  O ! how 
was  my  weary  soul  made  to  behold,  in  prayer,  a wonderful  beau- 
ty and  glory  in  the  deep  contrivance  of  infinite  free  love,  dis- 
played to  guilty  sinners  in  a Mediator,  whose  voice  my  soul  was 
made  to  hear  in  these  words.”  In  this  way  she  was  at  length 
delivered  from  these  distressing  fears.  I was  particularly  in- 
formed,” says  her  grandson,  Mr.  James  Calder,  of  Croy,  “ by  the 

29 


338 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


abovenamed  Mrs.  Jean  Taylor,  who  resided  with  her  from  the 
end  of  the  persecution  till  her  decease,  that  she  attained  to  very 
great  stability  with  respect  to  the  state  of  her  soul,  and  a glo- 
rious sunshine  of  spiritual  comfort  and  joy  in  the  Lord  for  some 
years  before  her  death.”  And  when  the  last  enemy  approached, 
she  was  not  only  calm  and  resigned,  but  expressed  a holy  exul- 
tation and  triumph  of  soul.  The  dark  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death  had  lost  all  its  terrors  to  her,  and  she  descried  beyond  it 
the  land  of  everlasting  light,  purity,  and  happiness.  A little  be- 
fore she  expired,  being  in  the  full  possession  of  her  reason,  and 
enjoying  a celestial  tranquillity  of  mind,  “ she  called  on  her  pious 
attending  friends,”  to  use  again  the  words  of  Mr.  Calder,  “ to 
sing  with  her  once  more  on  earth  the  praises  of  her  best  beloved  ; 
in  which  exercise  she  joined  with  particular  ardor,  insomuch  that 
the  sweetness,  the  melody,  and  elevation  of  her  voice  were  dis- 
tinguished by  all  who  were  present.  Then  having  spoken  a sen- 
tence or  two,  in  the  language  of  a triumphant  faith,  with  eyes 
lifted  up  to  heaven,  and  arms  stretched  out,  this  heaven-born  soul 
quitted  its  cottage  of  clay  with  a smile,  and  sprang  forward  to 
meet  her  celestial  Bridegroom,  who  was  now  come  to  receive 
her  into  the  beatific  embracements  of  his  everlasting  love.”* 

Mrs.  Campbell  had  twelve  children.  In  her  diary,  she  makes 
an  allusion  to  her  son  John,  who  was  born  about  September,  1692.t 
Another  of  her  sons,  Hugh,  became  a minister  of  the  gos- 
pel, j;  As  to  her  other  children,  we  are  ignorant  even  of  their 
names,  except  of  one  of  her  daughters,  Jean,  respecting  whose 
descendants,  as  has  been  said  before,  we  have  been  favored  with 
some  interesting  facts,  communicated  by  Mr.  Russell,  of  Stam- 
ford, Canada  West;  who,  after  stating  that  Mrs.  Campbell  had 
twelve  children,  and  that  he  can  furnish  no  information  respect- 
ing any  of  her  other  children,  or  their  descendants,  save  her 
daughter  Jean,  named  after  her  intimate  and  godly  companion, 
Jean  Taylor,  adds,  “ Jean  was  married  to  a Mr.  Calder,  a minis- 
ter somewhere  in  the  north.  She  and  her  husband  died,  leaving 
five  young  children.  One  of  thein,  named  James,  was  for  many 
years  minister  of  Croy,  Nairnshire.  Another  of  them,  named 
Grisell,  was  married  to  Robert  Falconer,  merchant,  Nairn  ; and 
a third,  named  Lilias,  and  placed  under  the  care  of  Jean  Taylor 
after  the  death  of  her  parents,  died  in  her  fifth  year,  old  and  ma- 
ture in  Christian  attainments.  The  other  two,  whose  names  I 
can  not  give,  died  unmarried  ; but  though  they  have  left  no  name 

^ The  Religious  Monitor,  vol.  ix.,  p.  131. 

t Ibid.,  vol.  ix.,  pp.  342,  343.  f Ibid.,  vol.  ix.,  p.  131. 


MRS.  CAMPBELL. 


339 


on  earth,  they  are  said  to  have  been  such  as  to  leave  no  doubt  that 
their  names  are  written  in  heaven.  The  Rev.  James  Calder,  of 
Croy,  Mrs.  Campbell’s  grandson,  was  so  esteemed  in"  his  day, 
that  he  was  called  the  Hervey  of  the  north.  He  had  three  sons, 
ministers  of  the  church  of  Scotland.  Hugh  was  his  successor 
in  Croy  ; Charles*  was  minister  in  Urquhart,  the  immediate  pred- 
ecessor of  Dr.  McDonald ; and  John  was  settled  in  a parish  in 
the  south.  The  Rev.  Hugh  Calder  had  a son,  named  Alexander, 
ordained  his  colleague  and  successor  before  he  had  completed  the 
age  of  twenty-one.  This  youth  was  a burning  and  shining  light, 
but  died  when  men  were  only  beginning  to  rejoice  in  his  light, 
and  to  magnify  the  grace  of  God  that  was  in  him.  The  Rev. 
Charles  Calder  had  a daughter  married  to  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Stew- 
art, formerly  of  Dingwall,  and  afterward  of  the  Canongate  church, 
Edinburgh.  Grisell  Calder,  grand-daughter  of  Mrs.  Campbell, 
left  a son  of  the  same  name  with  his  father,  Robert  Falconer, 
and  a daughter,  named  Mary.  Robert  was  for  many  years  sher- 
iff of  the  county  of  Nairn,  and  died  nearly  thirty  years  ago,  leav- 
ing two  sons  and  two  daughters.  His  sister,  Mary  Falconer, 
was  married  to  the  Rev.  Henry  Clark,  minister  of  the  Anti 
burgher  seceder  congregation  of  Boghole,  in  the  county  of  Nairn. 
She  died  about  the  same  time  v/ith  her  brother  ; and  her  only 
surviving  descendant  is  she  who,  for  twenty-three  years,  has 
been  the  companion  of  my  cares  and  labors  in  Canada.  Imper- 
fect as  this  account  is,  you  v/ill  not  fail  to  observe,  how  God  has 
been  graciously  pleased  to  render  the  descendants  of  that  emi- 
nently pious  woman,  and  their  immediate  relatives,  eminently 
instrumental  in  publishing  that  gospel  for  which  she  suffered, 
when  it  was  rare,  and  therefore  precious,  in  that  part  of  our  na- 
tive country.” 

For  some  interesting  notices  of  Mr.  Charles  Calder,  see  Memoirs  of  the  Rev. 
Alexander  Stewart,  D.D.,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Canongate,  Edinburgh,  pp.  207- 
211,  290-295. 


340 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT, 


MARGARET  M^LAUCHLAN  AND  MARGARET 
WILSON. 

The  years  1684  and  1685  were  years  of  terrible  suffering  to 
the  covenanters.  The  history  of  these  years  is  written  in  letters 
of  blood,  and  they  were  emphatically  called,  by  the  sufferers, 
The  killing  time.  The  savage  ruffians,  who  were  scouring  the 
country  like  incarnate  demons,  hunted  the  poor  helpless  victims 
of  their  cruelty  like  wild  beasts,  over  moors  and  mountains.  If 
they  met  with  a person  who  refused  to  answer  their  questions, 
or  who  did  not  satisfy  them  in  their  answers  ; or  if  they  found 
another  reading  the  Bible ; or  observed  a third  apparently 
alarmed  or  attempting  to  escape,  they  reckoned  all  such  persons 
fanatics,  and  in  many  instances  shot  them  dead  on  the  spot. 
The  devil  had  gone  forth,  having  great  wrath,  as  if  knowing 
that  his  time  was  short.  Patrick  Walker  remarks,  that  during 
these  two  years,  eighty  persons  were  shot  in  the  fields,  in  cold 
blood  ; and  he  further  says,  “ Since  that  time,  some  that  write  of 
court  affairs  of  Britain  for  twenty  of  these  years,  assert  that  the 
very  design  of  that  killing  time  was  to  provoke  the  Lord’s  people 
in  the  west  of  Scotland  to  rise  in  arms  in  their  own  defence,  as 
at  Pentland,  Bothwell,  and  Ayr’s  Moss,  that  they  might  get  the 
sham  occasion  to  raise  fire  and  sword  in  the  west,  to  make  it  a 
hunting  field,  as  the  duke  of  York  had  openly  threatened,  saying, 
‘ There  is  no  other  way  of  rooting  fanaticism  out  of  it.’  But 
whatever  may  be  as  to  this,  the  ferocity  of  the  persecutors  had 
risen  to  an  unprecedented  height,  creating  general  alarm,  and 
threatening  to  wear  out  the  saints  of  the  Most  High. 

We  are  now  to  narrate  the  history  of  one  of  the  bloody  scenes 
enacted  during  the  last  of  these  years — the  year  1685 — the  scene 
of  the  judicial  murder  of  two  blameless,  inoffensive,  and  pious 
females,  Margaret  M‘Lauchlan,t  an  aged  widow,  and  Margaret 
Wilson,  a young  girl,  who  were  drowned  in  the  tide  at  the  mouth 
of  the  river  Blednoch,  which  runs  into  the  sea  about  a hundred 
yards  to  the  south  of  the  town  of  Wigton,  in  Lower  Galloway. 
The  tragical  fate  of  Isabel  Alison  and  Marion  Harvey  has  already 
been  brought  under  the  notice  of  the  reader  and  the  case  before 
us  is  no  less  touching,  whether  we  consider  the  advanced  age  of 
the  one  sufferer,  and  the  youth  of  the  other,  or  the  kind  of  death 

^ Biograph.  Presby.,  vol.  i.,  p.  302.  t See  pp.  272-300. 

t Or  Lauchlison,  which  is  the  name  given  her  in  her  petition  to  the  privy  council. 


MARGARET  M‘LAUCHLAN  AND  MARGARET  WILSON.  341 


to  which  they  were  subjected,  or  the  shocking  barbarity  of  their 
ruthless  murderers,  or  the  undaunted  courage  with  which  they 
suffered  and  yielded  up  their  spirits  to  God. 

Margaret  Wilson,  the  ^^ounger  of  the  two  martyrs,  who 
was  only  about  eighteen  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  her  death, 
was  daughter  of  Gilbert  Wilson,  farmer,  of  Glenvernock,  the 
property  of  the  laird  of  Castlestewart,  in  the  parish  of  Penning- 
ham,  in  Wigtonshire.  He  was  in  good  outward  circumstances  ; 
and  his  farm,  which  was  excellent  soil,  and  in  the  best  condition, 
was  well  stocked  with  sheep  and  cattle.  Both  he  and  his  wife 
were  conformists  to  prelacy,  and  regularly  attended  the  ministry 
of  the  curate  of  Penningham  ; nor  could  the  government  lay  any- 
thing to  their  charge.  Their  children,  however,  which  is  rather 
remarkable,  were,  at  an  early  age,  not  only  well  acquainted  with 
the  principles  of  religion,  but,  contrary  to  the  example  of  their 
parents,  ardently  attached  to  the  persecuted  faith,  and  would  on 
no  consideration  attend  the  ministry  of  the  prelatic  incumbent  of 
that  parish.  On  this  account,  though  scarcely  of  such  an  age  as 
rendered  them  obnoxious  to  the  law,  they  were  searched  for ; 
and,  to  secure  their  safety,  were  compelled  to  betake  themselves, 
like  many  others,  to  the  desert  solitudes  of  the  upper  part  of 
Galloway.  They  were,  in  fact  treated  in  every  respect  as  out- 
laws. Their  parents  were  forbidden,  at  their  highest  peril,  to 
harbor  them,  to  supply  their  wants,  or  to  have  any  intercourse 
with  them ; and  were  even  commanded  so  far  to  disregard  natu- 
ral affection,  as  to  lodge  information  against  them  that  they  might 
be  apprehended.  But  the  barbarous  and  unprincipled  men  who 
were  ravaging  Wigtonshire  did  not  stop  at  this.  Mr.  Wilson 
being  a man  of  substance,  they  looked  v/ith  a greedy  eye  upon 
his  wealth  ; and,  notwithstanding  his  own  compliance  with  prel- 
acy, fined  him  for  the  nonconformity  of  his  children.  In  addi- 
tion to  this,  he  was  grievously  harassed  by  parties  of  soldiers, 
who,  sometimes  to  the  number  of  a hundred,  would  come  to  his 
house,  and  not  only  live  at  free  quarters,  but  commit  that  wanton 
destruction  upon  his  property  to  which,  by  the  fierceness  of  their 
dispositions  they  were  prompted.  To  hardships  of  this  nature 
he  was  subjected  for  several  years  ; and  these  hardships,  together 
with  his  frequent  attendance  upon  courts  at  Wigton,  which  was 
thirteen  miles  distant  from  his  own  house,  and  at  Edinburgh  re- 
duced him  from  comparative  affluence  to  poverty.  So  heavy, 
indeed,  were  his  pecuniary  losses — amounting,  at  a moderate 
calculation,  to  upward  of  5,000  merks — that,  though  before  being 

29* 


342 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


thus  pillaged,  he  was  one  of  the  most  substantial  men  in  that 
part  of  the  country,  he  died  about  the  year  1704  or  1705  in  des- 
titution, and  his  widow,  who  was  alive  in  1711,  then  very  aged, 
subsisted  upon  the  charity  of  her  friends.  This  is  one  instance, 
among  many  others  which  might  be  adduced,  in  which  persons 
of  property,  against  whose  loyalty  and  religion  the  government 
had  nothing  to  object,  were  exposed  to  the  spoliation  of  their 
goods,  and  were  even  sometimes  reduced  to  absolute  penury,  for 
the  recusance  of  those  connected  with  them,  and  over  whom  they 
had  often  no  control.  Loyal  and  conforming  parents  were  fined, 
and  otherwise  punished,  for^the  nonconformity  of  their  children  ; 
loyal  and  conforming  husbands  for  the  nonconformity  of  their 
wives  ; loyal  and  conforming  masters  for  the  nonconformity  of 
their  servants  ; loyal  and  conforming  proprietors  for  the  noncon- 
formity of  their  tenants.  The  troopers,  too,  who  like  licensed 
robbers,  traversed  the  country,  in  many  cases  pillaged,  with  in- 
discriminate wantonness,  such  as  were  friendly  to  the  govern- 
ment and  conformists  to  prelacy,  and  such  as  were  not. 

Margaret  Wilson,  and  her  sister,  Agnes,  who  was  then  only 
about  thirteen  years  of  age,  at  length  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
persecutors.  In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1685,  these  two  girls, 
to  secure  their  safety,  were  obliged  to  leave  for  some  time  their 
father’s  house,  and,  in  company  with  their  brother,  a youth  of  not 
more  than  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  other  persecuted  wanderers, 
to  seek  shelter,  in  the  mosses,  mountains,  and  caves  of  Garrick, 
Nithsdale,  and  Galloway.  On  the  death  of  Charles  II.,  when 
the  persecution  was  for  a brief  period  relaxed,  the  two  sisters, 
leaving  their  hiding-places,  ventured  to  come  secretly  to  Wigton, 
to  visit  some  of  their  fellow-sufferers  in  the  same  cause,  and  par- 
ticularly the  aged  Margaret  M‘Lauchlan,  whom  they  greatly 
loved,  and  who  was  well  qualified  to  minister  comfort  and  coun- 
sel to  them  under  their  troubles.  Here  both  of  them  were  dis- 
covered and  made  prisoners  through  the  treachery  of  a man 
named  Patrick  Stuart,  with  whom  they  were  personally  acquaint- 
ed, and  who  professed  to  take  a deep  and  friendly  interest  in 
their  welfare.  This  base  fellow,  from  what  motive  it  is  not  said, 
but  doubtless  either  from  pure  malignity  of  disposition,  or  from 
the  love  of  the  paltry  wages  given  to  informers,  purposed  to  be- 
tray these  friendless  and  unsuspecting  girls.  To  find  some  plau- 
sible ground  of  complaint  against  them,  he,  with  much  apparent 
kindness,  invited  them  to  go  with  him  and  partake  of  some  re- 
freshment, which  being  brought,  he  proposed  that  they  should 
drink  the  king’s  health.  This,  as  he  probably  anticipated,  from 


MARGARET  MLAUCHLAN  AND  MARGARET  WILSON.  343 


what  he  knew  of  their  character,  they  modestly  declined  to  do  ; 
upon  which  he  left  them,  and  immediately  proceeded  to  the 
authorities  of  Wigton,  to  lodge  information  against  them.  A 
party  of  soldiers  was  forthwith  despatched  to  apprehend  them. 
The  two  girls  were  cast  into  that  abominable  place  called  the 
thieves’  hole,”  and  after  lying  there  for  some  time,  were  removed 
to  the  prison  in  which  their  beloved  friend,  Margaret  M^Lauch- 
lan,  who  had  been  apprehended  about  the  same  time,  or  very 
shortly  after,  was  confined,  and  of  whom  we  now  proceed  to  give 
some  account. 

Margaret  M^Lauchlan  was  the  widow  of  John  Mulligen,  or 
Millikin,  carpenter,  a tenant  in  the  parish  of  Kirkinner,  in  the 
shire  of  Galloway,  in  the  farm  of  Drumjargan,  belonging  to  Colo- 
nel Vans  of  Barnbarroch ; and  she  had  now  nearly  reached  the 
venerable  age  of  seventy.*  She  was  a plain  countrywoman, 
but  superior  to  most  women  of  her  station  in  religious  knowl- 
edge ; blameless  in  her  deportment,  and  a pattern  of  virtue  and 
piety.  Being  strictly  presbyterian  in  her  principles,  she  had 
regularly  absented  herself  from  hearing  the  curate  of  the  parish 
of  Kirkinner  ; she  had  also  attended  the  sermons  of  the  proscribed 
ministers,  and  had  afforded  shelter  and  relief  to  her  persecuted 
nonconforming  relations  and  acquaintances  in  their  wanderings 
and  distresses.  Honorable  as  was  all  this  to  her  character,  it 
was,  in  those  days  of  oppression,  regarded  as  highly  criminal ; 
and,  on  this  account,  she  suffered  much  in  her  property,  and  at 
last  was  apprehended  on  the  sabbath-day,  when  engaged  in  the 
exercise  of  family  worship  in  her  own  dwelling,  the  day  of  rest 
being  now  the  season  when  the  persecutors  were  most  active  in 
searching  for  “ the  fanatics,”  and  often  most  successful  in  discov- 
ering them.  She  was  immediately  carried  to  prison,  in  which 
she  lay  for  a long  time,  and  was  treated  with  great  harshness, 
not  being  allowed  a fire  to  warm  her,  nor  a bed  upon  which  to 
lie,  nor  even  an  adequate  supply  of  food  to  satisfy  the  cravings 
of  nature. 

When  Margaret  M^Lauchlan,  Margaret  Wilson,  and  her  sister, 
were  apprehended,  it  was  demanded  of  them,  as  a test  of  their 
loyalty,  that  they  should  swear  the  abjuration  oath.  This  was 
an  oath  abjuring  a manifesto  published  by  the  “ Society  People,” 
or  the  Cameronians,  on  the  8th  of  November,  1684,t  entitled 

The  inscription  on  her  gravestone  in  the  churchyard  of  Wigton  makes  her  age 
sixty-three  ; but,  in  her  petition  to  the  privy  council,  she  says  that  she  is  “ about  the 
age  of  threescore  [and]  ten  years." 

t It  -was  fixed  upon  the  market-crosses  of  several  burghs,  and  upon  a great  many 
church-doors. 


344 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


The  Apologetic  Declaration  and  Admonitory  Vindication  of  the 
True  Presbyterians  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  especially  anent 
Intelligencers  and  Informers.”  In  this  manifesto,  after  expres- 
sing their  adherence  to  their  former  declarations,  in  which  they 
disowned  the  authority  of  Charles  Stuart,  and  declared  war  against 
him  and  his  accomplices ; and  after  testifying  that  they  “ utterly 
detest  and  abhor  that  hellish  principle  of  killing  all  who  differ  in 
judgment  or  persuasion  from  them they  declare  it  to  be  their 
purpose  to  punish,  according  to  their  power,  and  according  to  the 
degree  of  the  offence,  such  as  should  stretch  forth  their  hands 
against  them  by  shedding  their  blood  on  account  of  their  princi- 
ples, or  willingly  give  such  information  as  should  lead  thereto. 
This  step  we  do  not  undertake  to  vindicate,  it  being  “ calculated, 
notwithstanding  all  their  qualifications,  and  in  spite  of  all  the 
precautions  they  might  use,  to  open  a door  to  lawless  bloodshed, 
and  to  give  encouragement  to  assassination.  At  the  same  time, 
it  is  impossible  to  condemn  them  with  great  severity,  when  we 
reflect  that  they  were  cast  out  of  the  protection  of  law,  driven  out 
of  the  pale  of  society,  and  hunted  like  wild  beasts  in  the  w^oods 
and  on  the  mountain^  to  which  they  had  fled  for  shelter.”*  It 
is  also  to  be  noticed  that  what  they  chiefly  aimed  at  was  to  in- 
spire their  persecutors  wflth  a wholesome  terror  ;t  and  this  object 
was  to  a considerable  degree  gained  in  regard  to  the  more  active 
and  malignant  informers,  who  dared  not  now,  as  they  had  done 
before,  to  dog  the  footsteps  and  discover  to  the  soldiers  the  hiding- 
places  of  men  Avhom  intolerable  oppression  had  driven  to  desper- 
ation. The  more  virulent  and  persecuting  of  the  curates  in  Niths- 
dale  and  Galloway  were  also  so  panic-struck  on  the  publication 
of  the  paper,  as  to  leave  their  parishes  and  seek  safety  elsewhere 
for  a time. 

On  the  government  the  effect  was  different : it  roused  their 
fury  to  the  utmost  height.  On  the  22d  of  November,  they  passed 
an  act,  which  Wodrow  justly  calls  a “ bloody  act,”  ordaining 
“ every  person,  who  owns  or  will  not  disown  the  late  treasonable 
declaration  upon  oath,  whether  they  have  arms  or  not,  to  be  im- 
mediately put  to  death ; there  being  present  two  witnesses,  and 
the  person  or  persons  having  commission  for  that  effect’’^ — an 
act  on  which  is  to  be  charged  the  blood  of  not  a few  who  were 

* M‘Crie’s  Review  of  Tales  of  My  Landlord  in  his  Miscellaneous  Writings,  p.  443. 

t “ The  only  instances  in  which  it  is  alleged,  so  far  as  we  recollect,  that  it  led  to 
murder,  were  those  of  two  soldiers  at  Swine -Abbay,  and  of  the  curate  of  Carsphaim. 
The  last  of  these  was  publicly  disowned  and  condemned  by  the  Society  People.’’ — 
Ibid.,  p.  444. 

X Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  155. 


MARGARET  M‘LAUCHLAN  AND  MARGARET  WILSON.  345 


shot  in  the  fields  by  officers,  and  even  by  private  sentinels,  who 
pretended  to  be  invested  with  such  powers.  On  the  following 
day,  they  gave  commission,  with  a justiciary  power,  to  certain 
noblemen,  gentlemen,  and  military  officers,  to  convocate  all  the 
inhabitants,  men  and  women  above  fourteen  years  of  age  (in  cer- 
tain parishes  named),  to  execute,  by  military  commission  upon 
the  place,  such  of  them  as  owned  the  late  traitorous  declara- 
tion and  also  to  execute  the  sentence  of  death  on  such  as  re- 
fused to  disown  it,  after  trying  them  by  a jury.  An  oath  was 
also  framed  abjuring  the  “ Apologetic  Declaration,”  and  hence 
called  ‘‘  the  abjuration  oath,”  which  all,  both  men  and  women, 
above  the  age  of  sixteen  years,  were  required  to  swear,  under 
the  pains  of  high-treason. 

Margaret  M^Lauchlan,  and  the  two  youthful  sisters,  Margaret 
and  Agnes  Wilson,  refused  to  swear  the  abjuration  oath.  They 
were  accordingly  brought  to  a formal  trial  before  Sir  Robert 
Grierson  of  Lagg,*  Colonel  David  Graham  (brother  to  the  bloody 

* Of  these  commissioners,  Grierson  of  Lag-g  has  obtained  the  most  infamous  ce- 
lebrity in  the  annals  of  the  persecution.  So  cruel  and  brutal  was  his  temper,  that 
he  seerq,^  to  have  felt  an  infernal  delight  in  murdering,  in  cold  blood,  the  unarmed 
and  unresisting  peasantry  of  his  country.  In  1685,  he  shot  five  covenanters  dead  on 
the  spot,  without  giving  them  leave  to  pray;  and  when  one  of  them,  Mr.  Bell  of 
Whiteside,  who  was  acquainted  with  him,  begged  for  a quarter  of  an  hour  to  pre- 
pare for  death,  he  remorselessly  answered,  “ What  the  devil ! have  you  not  got  time 
enough  to  prepare  since  Bothwell  ?”  Among  the  Wodrow  MSS.  we  have  met  with 
some  specimens  of  his  profanity,  but  they  are  too  shocking  to  be  here  repeated. — 
(Vol.  xxxvii..  4to,  No.  1.)  He  outlived  the  persecution  nearly  half  a century,  having 
died  on  the  23d  of  December,  1733.  Many  of  the  cruelties  which  he  perpetrated 
have  been  recorded  in  his  “ Elegy,  or,  a Mock  Lamentation  of  the  Prince  of  Dark- 
ness upon  his  Death" — which  is  supposed  to  have  been  written  long  before  the  time 
of  his  demise.  Of  this  production,  the  following  lines,  taken  from  the  twenty-first 
edition,  are  a specimen  : — 

**  What  fatal  news  is  this  I hear ! 

On  earth  who  shall  my  standard  bear  ? 

For  Lagg,  who  was  my  champion  brave, 

Is  dead,  and  now  laid  in  his  grave. 

The  want  of  him  is  a great  grief ; 

He  was  my  manager  and  chief ; 

He  bore  my  image  on  his  brow — 

My  service  he  did  still  avow. 

He  had  no  other  Deitie 

But  this  world,  the  flesh,  and  me ! 

Unto  us  he  did  homage  pay. 

And  did  us  worship  every  day. 

In  Galloway  he  was  well  known — 

His  great  exploits  in  it  were  shown  ; 

He  w^as  my  general  in  that  place  ; 

He  did  the  presbyterians  chase : 

Through  moss,  and  moor,  and  many  a hag, 

They  were  pursued  by  my  friend  Lagg. 

He  many  a saint  pursued  to  death  ; 

He  feared  neither  hell  nor  wrath ! 


346 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


CLaverhouse),  Major  Wiudram,  Captain  Strachan,  and  Provost 
Cultrain  at  Wigton,  on  the  13th  of  April,  1685.  In  their  indict- 
ment, they  were  charged  with  being  at  the  battle  of  Bothwell- 
bridge,  at  the  skirmish  of  Ayr’s  Moss,  at  twenty  field  conventi- 
cles, and  at  an  equal  number  of  house  conventicles.  The  first 
two  charges  were  notoriously  false.  None  of  the  panels  had 
ever  been  within  many  miles  of  either  of  these  places.  It  is, 
besides,  to  be  noticed  that  at  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Bothwell- 
bridge,  the  two  girls  were  mere  children  (the  one  only  about 
seven  years  of  age,  and  the  other  only  about  eleven  or  twelve), 
while  sixty-five  years  had  passed  over  the  head  of  the  aged 
widow ; and  it  can  not  for  a moment  be  supposed  that  two  girls 
of  so  tender  an  age,  or  that  an  humble,  inoffensive  female,  who 
had  nearly  reached  the  utmost  limits  of  human  earthly  existence, 
could  be  concerned  in  that  insurrection.  The  same  remark  ap- 
plies to  the  skirmish  at  Ayr’s  Moss,  which  took  place  only  a little 
more  than  a year  after  the  rising  at  Bothwell-bridge.  The  other 
charges  brought  against  these  sufferers  may  have  been  true  in 
part  or  in  whole  ; but  nothing  was  proved  against  them.  Being 
again  required  to  swear  the  abjuration  oath,  all  of  them  refused 
to  swear  it ; and  this  refusal  seems  to  have  been  the  main  ground 
upon  which  they  were  condemned.  After  the  mockery  of  a trial, 
a jury  was  found  so  unprincipled  as  to  bring  in  a verdict  of  guilty 
against  the  whole  three  ; and  the  sentence  pronounced  upon  them 
was,  that,  upon  the  11th  of  May,  they  should  be  tied  to  stakes 
fixed  within  the  flood-mark  in  the  water  of  Blednoch,  near  Wig- 
ton,  where  the  sea  flows  at  high  water,  there  to  be  drowned ! 
They  were  commanded  to  receive  their  sentence  on  their  bended 
knees ; and  refusing  to  kneel,  they  were  pressed  down  by  force 
till  it  was  pronounced.*  But  they  were  by  no  means  daunted ; 
they  heard  the  cruel  sentence  with  much  composure,  and  even 
with  cheerful  countenances,  accounting  it  their  honor  that  they 
were  called  to  suffer  in  the  cause  of  Christ. 

This  extraordinary  sentence  could  not  but  produce  great  ex- 
citement in  Wigton,  and  the  friends  of  the  three  females  were 

His  conscience  was  so  cauterized, 

He  refused  nothing  that  I pleased : 

For  which  he’s  had  my  kindness  still, 

Since  he  his  labors  did  fulfil. 

Any  who  read  the  Scriptures  through, 

I’m  sure  they'll  find  but  very  few 

Of  my  best  friends  that’s  mentioned  there, 

That  could  with  Grier  of  Lagg  compare!” 

The  History  of  Galloway,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  281,  282. 

^ Cloud  of  Witnesses,  p.  301. 


MARGARET  M‘LAUCHLAN  AND  MARGARET  WILSON.  347 


plunged  into  the  deepest  distress.  The  afflicted  father  of  the 
two  girls,  on  going  to  Edinburgh,  was  allowed  to  purchase,  at  the 
price  of  one  hundred  pounds  sterling,  the  life  of  his  younger 
daughter,  in  consequence  of  her  tender  age.  When  in  Edin- 
burgh, he  would  also,  no  doubt,  use  every  means  in  his  power  to 
save  the  life  of  his  other  daughter ; and  his  intercessions,  as  we 
shall  afterward  see,  had  a mollifying  effect  upon  the  members 
of  the  privy  council.  At  the  same  time,  Margaret  Wilson’s  friends 
did  all  they  could  to  prevail  with  her  to  swear  the  abjuration 
oath,  and  to  promise  to  attend  the  ministry  of  the  curate  of  the 
parish  in  which  she  lived,  but  without  effect ; for  by  no  solicita- 
tions would  she  surrender  her  convictions  of  truth  and  duty,  what- 
ever it  might  cost  her.  During  her  imprisonment,  she  wrote  a 
long  letter  to  her  relations,  highly  honorable  to  her  character.  It 
was  full  of  the  deep  and  affecting  sense  which  she  had  of  God’s 
love  to  her  soul,  and  expressed  an  entire  resignation  to  his  sov- 
ereign disposal.  It  also  contained  a vindication  of  her  refusal 
to  save  her  life  by  swearing  the  abjuration  oath,  and  by  engaging 
to  conform  to  prelacy — written  with  a cogency  of  argument  and 
a solidity  of  judgment  far  above  her  years  and  education.*  The 
aged  Margaret  M^Lauchlan,  it  would  appear,  exhibited  in  prison 
less  heroic  resolution  than  her  youthful  companion.  She  was 
induced  to  send  a petition  to  the  privy  council,  praying  them  to 
recall  the  sentence  of  death  pronounced  upon  her,  acknowledge 
ing  the  justice  of  the  sentence,  and  expressing  her  willingness 
to  take  the  abjuration  oath,  and  regularly  to  attend  her  parish 
church.  The  petition  is  as  follows  : — 

“ Unto  his  Grace,  my  Lord  High  Commissioner,  and  remanent 
Lords  of  his  Majesty’s  Most  Honorable  Privy  Council — The 
humble  Supplication  of  Margaret  Lauchlison,  now  prisoner  in 
the  Tolbooth  of  Wigton  : Showeth, 

“ That  whereas,  I being  justly  condemned  to  die  by  the  lords 
commissioners  of  his  majesty’s  most  honorable  privy  council  and 
justiciaryj  in  a court  holden  at  Wigton,  the  13th  day  of  April  in- 
stant, for  my  not  disowning  that  traitorous  ‘ Apologetical  Decla- 
ration’ lately  affixed  at  several  parish  churches  within  this  king- 
dom, and  my  refusing  the  oath  of  abjuration  of  the  same,  which 
was  occasioned  by  my  not  perusing  the  same,  and  now  I having 
considered  the  said  Declaration,  do  acknowledge  the  same  to  be 
traitorous,  and  tends  to  nothing  but  rebellion  and  sedition,  and  to 
be  quite  contrary  unto  the  written  Word  of  God,  and  am  content 
to  abjure  the  same  with  my  whole  heart. 

Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  248. 


348 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


“ May  it  therefore  please  your  grace  and  remanent  lords,  as 
said  is,  to  take  my  case  to  your  serious  consideration,  being  about 
the  age  of  threescore  [and]  ten  years,  and  to  take  pity  and  com- 
passion on  me,  and  recall  the  foresaid  sentence  so  justly  pro- 
nounced against  me,  and  to  grant  warrant  to  any  your  grace 
thinks  fit  to  administrat  the  oath  of  abjuration  to  me,  and,  upon 
my  taking  of  it,  to  order  my  liberation  ; and  your  supplicant  shall 
live  hereafter  a good  and  faithful  subject  in  time  coming,  and 
shall  frequent  the  ordinances  and  live  regularly,  and  give  what 
other  obedience  your  grace  and  remanent  lords  sh^ll  prescribe 
thereanent,  and  your  petitioner  shall  ever  pray. 

“ Written  by  William  Moir. 

‘‘  W.  Dunbar,  witness. 

“Will.  Gordoun,  witness.”* 

Yielding  to  the  prayer  of  this  petition,  and  to  the  representa- 
tions of  Margaret  Wilson’s  father,  the  privy  council  granted  a 
reprieve  to  these  two  females,  and  recommended  them  to  the  sec- 
retaries of  state  for  his  majesty’s  pardon.  The  act  of  council  is 
as  follows  : — 

“ Edinburgh,  April  30,  1685. 

“ The  lords  of  his  majesty’s  privy  council  do  hereby  reprieve 
the  execution  of  the  sentence  of  death  pronounced  by  the  justices 

against  Margaret  Wilson  and  Margaret  Lauchlison,  until  the  — 

day  of , and  discharge  the  magistrates  of  Wigton  from  put- 

ting of  the  said  sentence  to  execution  against  them  until  the  fore- 
said  day  ; and  recommend  the  said  Margaret  Wilson  and  Marga- 
ret Lauchlison  to  the  lords  secretaries  of  state,  to  interpose  with 
his  most  sacred  majesty  for  the  royal  remission  to  them.”! 

But,  notwithstanding  this  reprieve,  these  two  women  were,  on 
the  day  appointed  (the  11th  of  May),  conducted  from  the  tolbooth 
of  Wigton  to  the  place  of  execution,  amid  a numerous  crowd  of 
spectators,  who  had  assembled  to  witness  so  unusual  a sight. 
They  were  guarded  by  Major  Windramj;  with  a company  of  sol- 
diers, and,  on  arriving  at  the  place,  were  fastened  to  stakes  fixed 

* W arrants  of  Privy  Council.  t Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council. 

X It  is  not  unworthy  of  notice,  as  affording  a singular  instance  of  the  sovereignty 
of  Divine  grace,  that  several  of  this  persecutors  children  gave  pleasing  evidence  of 
early  piety.  Mr.  James  Renwick,  in  a letter  “ to  the  Honorable  Mr.  Robert  Hahi- 
ilton,’'  dated  July  9,  1684,  says ; “ A grand  persecutor,  called  Major  Windram,  had 
three  children,  who  within  a little  while  of  [each]  other  died — one  of  them  a very 
young  boy,  and  two  daughters  come  to  the  years  of  discretion,  who  died  very  sweetly 
and  pleasingly — declaring  that  the  Lord's  hand  was  stretched  forth  against  them 
because  of  the  hand  their  father  hath  in  shedding  the  blood  of  the  saints  ; and  ob- 
tested him,  before  God,  that  he  would  quit  the  course  he  followed  ; which  things 
had  some  though  no  lasting  effect  upon  him.” — Renwick’s  Letters,  p.  81. 


MARGARET  M‘LAUCHLAN  AND  MARGARET  WILSON.  345 


in  the  sand,  between  high  and  low  water  mark.  Margaret 
M^Lauchlan,  who  is  said  to  have  now  manifested  great  fortitude, 
though,  when  in  prison,  she  had  offered  to  make  concessions, 
was  tied  to  the  stake  placed  nearest  the  advancing  tide,  that  she 
might  perish  first,  for  the  obvious  purpose  of  terrifying  into  sub- 
mission the  younger  sufferer,  who  was  bound  to  a stake  nearer  the 
shore.  The  multitude  looked  on,  thrilled  with  horror.  The 
flood  gradually  made  its  way  to  the  aged  matron,  rising  higher 
and  higher  at  each  successive  wave,  “ mounting  up  from  knee,' 
waist,  breast,  neck,  chin,  lip,”  until  it  choked  and  overwhelmed 
her.  Margaret  Wilson  witnessed  the  whole  scene,  and  knew 
that  she  would  soon  share  the  same  fate ; but  her  steadfastness 
remained  unshaken  ; and  so  far  from  exhibiting  any  symptoms 
of  terror,  she  displayed  a calm  courage,  rivalling  that  of  the  most 
intrepid  martyrs.  When  her  fellow-suiferer  was  struggling  in 
the  waters  with  the  agonies  of  death,  a heartless  bystander,  per- 
haps one  of  the  soldiers,  asked  the  youthful  Margaret,  to  whom 
the  tide  had  not  yet  advanced  so  far,  what  she  thought  of  the 
spectacle  before  her.  ‘‘  What  do  I see,”  she  answered,  ‘‘  but 
Christ,  in  one  of  his  members,  wrestling  there  ? Think  you  that 
we  are  the  sufferers  ? No,  it  is  Christ  in  us  ; for  he  sends  none 
a warfare  upon  their  own  charges.” 

When  bound  to  the  stake,  Margaret  Wilson  sang  several  verses 
of  the  twenty-fifth  psalm,  beginning  at  the  seventh  verse  : — 

“ Let  not  the  errors  of  my  youth, 

Nor  sins  remembered  be  : 

In  mercy  for  thy  goodness’  sake, 

O Lord,  remember  me. 

The  Lord  is  good  and  gracious, 

He  upright  is  also  : 

He  therefore  sinners  will  instruct, 

In  ways  that  they  should  go,”  &c. 

She  then  repeated,  with  a calm  and  even  cheerful  voice,  a por- 
tion of  the  eighth  chapter  of  Paul’s  Epistle  to  the  Romans  ; and, 
through  a steadfast  faith  in  the  great  and  consoling  truths  exhibit- 
ed in  that  sublime  chapter,  and  in  the  interesting  verses  of  the 
psalm  she  had  sung,  she  was  enabled  to  meet  death  with  unshrink- 
ing courage,  looking  forward  with  humble  hope  to  that  exceeding 
great  and  eternal  weight  of  glory,  which  would  do  more  than 
counterbalance  all  her  sufferings  in  the  cause  of  Christ.  She 
next  engaged  in  prayer ; and,  while  so  employed,  the  waters  had 
risen  upon  her  so  high  as  to  reach  her  lips,  and  she  began  to 
struggle  with  the  agonies  of  death.  At  this  moment,  by  the  com- 
mand of  her  murderers,  who  pretended  to  be  willing  to  preserve 

30 


350 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


her  life,  provided  she  should  swear  the  abjuration  oath,*  the  cords 
which  bound  her  to  the  stake  were  unloosened,  and  she  was 
pulled  out  of  the  waters.  As  soon  as  she  recovered  and  was 
able  to  speak,  it  was  asked  her,  by  Major  Win  dram’s  orders,  if 
she  would  pray  for  the  king.  With  the  Christian  meekness 
which  formed  so  engaging  a feature  in  her  character,  she  an- 
swered, “ I wish  the  salvation  of  all  men,  and  the  damnation  of 
none.”  “ Dear  Margaret,”  exclaimed  a friend,  deeply  moved 
with  pity,  and  anxious  to  save  her  life,  “ say,  God  save  the  king ! 
say,  God  save  the  king !”  With  the  greatest  composure,  she  re- 
plied, “ God  save  him,  if  he  will ; for  it  is  his  salvation  I de- 
sire.”! Immediately  her  friends  called  out  to  Windram,  “ Sir, 
she  hath  said  it ! she  hath  said  it !”  But  with  this  her  murder- 
ers were  not  satisfied.  Lagg,  we  are  told,  bejlowed  out,  “ Damned 
bitch ! we  do  not  want  such  prayers  ; tender  the  oath  to  her 
and  Windram,  coming  near  her,  demanded  that  she  should  swear 
the  abjuration  oath,  else  she  should  be  again  instantly  cast  into 
the  sea.  She  needed  not  long  to  deliberate  ; in  an  instant  her 
resolve  v/as  taken ; preferring  to  die  rather  than  to  do  what 
she  believed  would  be  a denial  of  Christ  and  his  truth,  she  firm- 
ly replied,  “ I will  not ; I am  one  of  Christ’s  children ; let  me 
go.”  And  so,  after  her  sufferings  were  thus  inhumanly  protracted, 
and  after  being  thus  cruelly  tantalized  with  the  hope  of  life,  she 
was,  by  Windram’s  orders,  thrust  into  the  waters,  which  speedily 
closed  over  her  for  the  last  time. 

These  females,  it  would  appear,  as  has  been  said  before,  were 
executed  in  disregard  of  the  reprieve  granted  them  by  the  privy 
council,  who  recommended  them  to  the  royal ' clemency.  The 
day  to  which  they  were  reprieved  is  left  a blank  in  the  records 
of  the  council ; but  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  it  would 
be  to  a later  day  than  the  11th  of  May,  as  at  that  period,  the  fa- 
cilities of  communication  being  greatly  less  than  at  present,  there 
v/ould  hardly  be  time,  between  the  30th  of  April  and  the  11th 

W e say,  pretended ; because  it  may  fairly  be  questioned,  from  what  we  know 
of  tbe  character  of  her  persecutors,  whether  her  life  would  have  been  spared,  even 
though  she  had  sworn  the  abjuration  oath.  The  other  questions  which  it  was  com- 
mon to  put  to  the  covenanters  might  also  have  been  put  to  her,  as,  “ Will  you  re- 
nounce the  covenant?’’ — “ Was  the  killing  of  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  mur- 
der ?” — “ W as  the  rising  of  Bothwell  bridge  rebellion  V' — and  failing  to  answer  any 
of  these  questions  In  the  affirmative,  she  might,  after  all,  have  been  drowned  by 
these  blood-thirsty  men. 

t It  is  therefore  a mistake  to  say,  as  Chambers  has  done  in  his  picture  of  Scot- 
land (vol.  i.,  pp.,  273,  274),  that  our  two  martyrs  “were  offered  their  lives  when  at 
the  slake,  on  condition  of  saying,  ‘ God  save  the  king,’  and  on  refusing  were  left  to 
be  overwhelmed  by  the  rising  waves.” — See  Appendix,  No.  X. 

t Aikman’s  Annals  of  the  Persecution,  p.  518. 


MARGARET  M‘LAUCHLAN  AND  MARGARET  WILSON.  351 


of  May,  to  get  a return  from  London.  It  seems,  therefore,  high- 
ly probable  that  our  two  martyrs  were,  by  the  brutality  of  their 
judges  and  the  magistrates  of  Wigton,  executed  without  orders 
from  the  government.  But  of  the  blood  of  these  women  the  gov- 
ernment were  not  altogether  guiltless.  They  had  ordained  the 
abjuration  oath  to  be  put  to  all  persons  above  sixteen  years  of 
age,  whether  male  or  female  ; and  such  as  refused  to  swear  it, 
were  liable  to  be  tried  and  punished  capitally.  They  had  invested 
inferior  officers  with  the  power  of  trying  and  condemning  such  as 
refused  it.  They^had  even  given  instructions  to  their  commis- 
sioners, to  condemn  such  women  as  had  been  signally  active  in 
supporting  the  Apologetic  Declaration,  to  be  drowned  ;*  and 
though,  in  the  present  instance,  they  granted  a reprieve  to  these 
condemned  women,  and  recommended  them  to  the  mercy  of  the 
king,  yet,  when  their  unprincipled  and  hardened  officers  executed 
the  sentence  contrary  to  orders,  they  did  not  even  censure  them 
for  such  a deed  of  revolting  atrocity. 

The  bodies  of  the  two  martyrs  on  being  taken  from  the  waters, 
were  buried  in  the  churchyard  of  Wigton.  A stone  was  after- 
ward erected  to  their  memory.  The  particular  date  of  its  erec- 
tion can  not  now  be  ascertained,  but,  from  the  freedom  of  its  lan- 
guage, it  is  evident  that  it  was  after  the  revolution.  It  is  placed 
in  the  wall  of  the  church,  and  the  inscription  upon  it,  copied  ver- 
batim et  literatim^  is  as  follows  : — 


HERE  LIES  MARGARAT  LACHLANE 


WHO  WAS  BY  UNJUST  LAW  SENTENCED 
TO  DYE  BY  LAGG  STRACHANE  WINRAME 
AND  GRAME  AND  TYED  TO  A STAKE  WITH 
IN  THE  FLOOD  FOR  HER* 


ME  MENTO  MORI 


* ADHERENCE  TO  SCOTLAND’S  REFORMATION 
COVENANTS  NATIONAL  AND  SOLEMN  LEAGUE 
AGED  63.  1685. 


W 


LET  EARTH  AND  STONE  STILL  WITNESS  BEARE 
THERE  LYES  A VIRGINE  MARTYR  HERE. 
MURTHERD  FOR  OWNING  CHRIST  SUPREME, 
HEAD  OF  HIS  CHURCH  AND  NO  MORE  CRIME 
BUT  NOT  ABJURING  PRESBYTERY, 

AND  HER  NOT  OWING  PRELACY, 

THEY  HER  CONDEMND,  BY  UNJUST  LAW : 

OF  HEAVEN  NOR  HELL  THEY  STOOD  NO  AW. 
WITHIN  THE  SEA  TYD  TO  A STAKE ; 

SHE  SUFFERED  FOR  CHRIST  JESUS  SAKE 

THE  ACTORS  OF  THIS  CRUEL  CRIME 

WAS  LAGG.  STRACHAN.  WINRAM.  AND  GRAHAME 

NEITHER  YOUNG  YEARS,  NOR  YET  OLD  AGE 

COULD  STOP  THE  FURY  OF  THERE  RAGE. 


^ Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  165. 


352 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


It  may  here  be  stated  that  a monument  in  honor  of  these  and 
other  martyrs  whose  ashes  repose  in  the  churchyard  of  Wigton, 
is  about  to  be  erected.  A sermon  was  preached,  by  the  Rev. 
Dr.  William  Symington,  of  Glasgow,  in  the  parish  church  of 
Wigton,  on  Sabbath,  the  24th  of  September,  1848,  in  aid  of  a 
fund  for  carrying  that  object  into  effect.  The  subject  chosen  by 
the  preacher  Avas  the  opening  of  the  fifth  seal.  Rev.  vi.  9-11  ; 
and,  in  an. address  at  the  close  of  public  worship,  he  thus  vindi- 
cates the  erection  of  such  memorials  to  the  memory  of  our  mar- 
tyrs : “ Let  not, our  object  be  mistaken.  It  is  not,  by  any  means, 
to  canonize  the  sufferers  ; or  to  imitate  the  conduct  of  the  church 
of  Rome,  by  cherishing  a superstitious  and  undue  veneration  for 
departed  saints.  Our  object  is  to  draw  attention  to  the  princi- 
ples, rather  than  to  the  persons  of  the  martyrs.  And  this  we 
propose  to  do  by  commemorating  their  noble  deeds,  and  their 
sufferings.  We  affect  to  tell  the  simple  tale  of  their  martyrdom, 
and  to  renew  those  touching  memorials  which  are  falling  into  a 
state  of  decay  and  obliteration  by  the  lapse  of  time.  The  prin- 
ciple upon  which  we  act,  we  regard  as  distinctly  recognised  in 
the  approved  example  of  saints,  the  statements  of  Holy  Writ,  and 
the  procedure  of  God  himself.  We  have  read  of  ‘ the  pillar  of 
Rachel’s  grave,’  reared  by  patriarchal  hands,  ‘ in  the  way  to 
Ephrath,  which  is  Bethlehem.’  We  can  not  forget  the  declara- 
tions ‘ that  the  righteous  shall  be  in  everlasting  remembrance,’ 
and  that  ‘ the  memory  of  the  just  is  blessed  ;’  nor  that  one  of  the 
marks  of  the  Divine  displeasure  against  the  wicked  consists  in 
‘ cutting  off  their  memory  from  the  earth,’  and  making  ‘ all  their 
memory  to  perish.’  Nor  can  we  suffer  ourselves  to  overlook  the 
circumstance,  that  the  11th  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
is  just  a noble  monumental  pile,  raised  by  the  Spirit,  in  com- 
memoration of  elders  who  had  received  a good  report,  and  whose 
names,  lest  they  should  pass  away  into  oblivion,  are  legibly  in- 
scribed on  its  surface.” 

Chambers,  in  his  picture  of  Scotland,  relates  Avhat  Jie  calls  ‘‘  a 
strange  and  ridiculous  story,”  which  is  told  at  Wigton,  connected 
with  the  drowning  of  these  women.  “ One  of  the  most  active 
persons  at  the  execution,”  says  he,  “ was,  it  seems,  the  town  offi- 
cer of  Wigton,  who,  when  the  girls  were  raised  out  of  the  water, 
and  refused  to  save  their  lives  by  the  simple  expression  above- 
mentioned  (God  save  the  king),  took  his  halbert,  and,  pressing 
them  down  again  into  the  water,  exclaimed,  with  savage  glee, 
‘ Then  take  another  drink,  my  hearties.’  Heaven  for  this  is  said 
to  have  afflicted  him  with  an  intolerable  and  unquenchable  thirst, 


MARGARET  M‘LAUCHLAN  AND  MARGARET  WILSON.  353 


insomiicli  that  he  never  after  durst  venture  abroad  without  carry- 
ing along  with  him  an  enormous  jar  full  of  water,  wherewithal 
to  gratify  his  unnatural  appetite.  As  he  crawled  about  with  this 
singular  load,  people  used  to  pass  him  by  with  silent  horror  ; for, 
though  his  misfortune  might  have  been  the  result  of  disease,  it 
was,  in  that  superstitious  age,  universally  believed  to  be  the  man- 
ifestation of  Divine  vengeance.”!  This  traditionary  anecdote  we 
have  given  as  we  find  it,  without  vouching  for  its  truth.  But  the 
assertion  of  this  popular  writer,  that  it  was  superstitious  to  regard 
the  calamity  which  befell  this  man,  on  the  supposition  that  the 
story  is  true,  as  the  manifestation  of  Divine  vengeance,  since  it 
might  have  been  the  result  of  disease,  is  most  certainly  unsound 
in  theology.  Even  granting  it  to  have  been  the  result  of  disease, 
this  would  not  prove  that  it  was  not  a judgment  of  God ; for  dis- 
' ease,  like  everything  else,  is  under  his  direction  and  control, 
and  he  can  make  it  the  minister  of  his  justice  as  well  as  any 
other  agent,  even  when  it  is  brought  on,  not  by  any  supernatural 
infliction,  but  in  the  ordinary  course  of  nature.  No  doubt,  in 
cases  of  this  sort,  a mistaken,  an  uncharitable,  and  even  an  im- 
pious interpretation,  may  be  put  upon  Providence,  in  reference 
to  the  calamities  which  befall  our  fellow-creatures.*  But  still  it 

* As  an  example  of  this,  we  may  quote  the  following  passage  from  one  of  Mr. 
Dobert  Baillie's  letters.  Writing  to  Mr.  Spang,  apparently  in  June,  1658,  he  says  : 
“ Mr.  Gillespie  remains  there  (in  London),  sorely  sick,  some  think  in  displeasure  that 
bis  desires  were  not  granted.  However,  at  his  last  going  to  Hampton  court,  he  got 
^110  speech  of  the  Protector;  if  this  grieved  him  I know  not;  but  he  went  immedi- 
ately from  Hamptoun  court  to  Wornbledoun,  Lambert’s  house,  being  Saturday,  at 
night;  and  having  engaged  to  preach  on  Sunday  morning,  before  sermon,  be  had 
five  stools,  and  after  his  painful  preaching,  fourscore,  before  he  rested ; thereafter, 
for  many  days,  a great  flux  and  fever,  together  with  the  breach  of  a hulcer  in  the 
guts,  put  him  to  the  very  brink  of  death.  Many  thought  it  the  evident  hand  of  God 
upon  him,  and  would  not  have  sorrowed  for  his  death.  For  myself,  I was  grieved, 
foreseeing  the  hurt  of  our  college  by  bis  removal.” — (Baillie’s  Letters  and  Journals, 
vol.  iii.,  p.  356.)  Mr.  Patrick  Gillespie,  who  was  then  principal  of  the  university  of 
Glasgow,  was  a zealous  protestor  during  the  controversy  between  the  resolution- 
ers  and  the  protestors  ; and  the  men  who  are  here  said  to  have  viewed  his  illness 
as  a judgment  of  God,  were  resolutioners.  This  accounts  for  their  uncharitable 
and  impious  explanation  of  the  conduct  of  Divine  providence  in  bringing  that  severe 
illness  upon  Gillespie.  It  was  the  suggestion  of  the  animosity  of  party  spirit ; and 
Jt  was  substantially  saying,  that  God  was  such  a one  as  themselves.  It  threw  no 
light  on  God’s  providence  toward  Gillespie,  but  it  threw  light  upon  the  temper  of 
their  own  minds.  It  indicated  plainly  enough,  that  had  they  been  intrusted  with 
the  government  of  the  world,  disease  would  soon  have  thinned  the  ranks  of  the 
protesters,  or  have  even  exterminated  the  whole  race.  Had  this  been  done,  we 
would  have  had  few  martyrs  during  the  persecution  of  Charles  II.,  for  the  ministers 
who  refused  to  conform  to  prelacy,  and  who  suffered  for  nonconformity,  were  nearly 
all  prote.sters  ; the  most  of  the  resolutioners,  though  they  had  sworn  against  prela- 
cy, having  too  little  principle,  and  too  little  courage,  to  make  sacrifices  for  conscience' 
sake.  Happily  for  the  protesters,  the  government  of  the  world  was  in  more  merci- 
ful hands  than  in  those  of  the  resolutioners.  It  may  be  added,  that  Gillespie  was 
again  restored  to  health.  t Pp.  273,  274. 

30* 


354 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


must  be  admitted  by  every  observer  of  Providence,  altogether 
apart  from  the  authority  of  revelation,  that  though  wickedness, 
and  even  atrocious  wickedness,  may  often  pass  unpunished  in 
the  present  life,  yet  there  are  instances  in  which  it  is  punished 
in  the  course  of  events,  in  so  striking  a manner,  as  to  extort, 
even  /rom  the  most  unthinking,  and  the  least  inclined  to  super- 
stition, the  acknowledgment  that  such  visitations  bear  the  impress 
of  the  hand  of  a righteous  God.  “ In  the  Divine  management 
of  the  fortuitous  events  of  life,”  says  Isaac  Taylor,  “ there  is,  in 
the  first  place,  visible  some  occasional  flashings  of  that  retribu- 
tive justice  which,  in  the  future  world,  is  to  obtain  its  long  post- 
poned and  perfected  triumph.  There  are  instances  which, 
though  not  very  common,  are  frequent  enough  to  keep  alive  the 
salutary  fears  of  mankind ; wherein  vindictive  visitations  speak 
articulately  in  attestation  of  the  righteous  judgment  of  God  upon 
them  that  do  evil.  Outrageous  villanies,  or  appalling  profane- 
ness, sometimes  draw  upon  the  criminal  the  instant  bolt  of  Di- 
vine wrath  ; and  in  so  remarkable  a manner,  that  the  most  irre- 
ligious minds  are  quelled  with  a sudden  awe,  and  confess  the 
fearful  hand  of  God.”* 

Another  singular  anecdote,  connected  with  the  drowning  of 
these  women,  has  been  preserved  by  the  industrious  Wodrow. 
Between  nineteen  and  twenty  years  after  the  Revolution,  a 
daughter  of  Margaret  M‘Lauchlan,  dreamed,  it  would  seem,  that 
her  mother  appeared  to  her  and  bade  her  go  and  tell  Provost 
Cultrain,  of  Wigton,  who  was  a very  active  instrument  in  her 
death,  and  who  was  then  alive,  that  he  must  soon  stand  before 
the  bar  of  the  great  God,  to  give  in  his  account.  Within  a few 
months,  or  a few  weeks  after  this  dream,  the  provost  died.  Hav- 
ing gone,  in  the  beginning  of  November,  1708,  to  hold  a justice- 
court  at  Stranraer,  he  no  sooner  stood  up  to  make  a speech  when 
the  court  assembled,  than  his  tongue  faltered,  and  he  fell  back. 
He  was  immediately  carried  to  his  lodgings,  at  which  he  died 
within  a few  days.  Wodrow  had  received  some  hints  of  this 
matter  from  Mr.  Henry  Davidson,  minister  of  Galashiels  ;t  but 
from  his  extreme  care  in  authenticating,  as  far  as  possible,  the 
information  communicated  to  him,  he  wrote  a letter  to  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Campbell,  minister  of  Kirkinner,  requesting  him  lo  examine 
Margaret  M‘Lauchlan’s  daughter,  who  was  then  alive,  in  refer- 

Natural  History  of  Enthusiasm,  pp.  135,  136. 
t In  a letter  from  him,  dated  August  29,  1717  ; Letters  to  Wodrow,  vol.  x.,  -no, 
No.  47,  Mr.  Davidson  says,  “He  (Provost  Cultrain)  was  acquainted  with  the  dream 
some  months  before  his  death,  but  he  jested  at  it.'^ 


MARGARET  M‘LAUCHLAN  AND  MARGARET  WILSON.  355 

ence  to  lier  dream.  The  answer  Mr.  Campbell  returned  is  as  fol- 
lows “ Rev.  Dear  Brother  : — . . . In  compliance  with  your 
desire  anent  Elizabeth  Millikin’s  dream,  know  that  I went  and 
discoursed  her  this  day,  in  order  to  give  you  the  genuine  account 
of  it.  The  said  Elizabeth  dreamed,  some  weeks  of  months  be- 
fore the  quarter  sessions  that  met  in  November,  1708,  that  her 
mother,  Margaret  Lauchlisson,  came  to  her,  at  the  cross  of  Wig- 
ton,  with  garb,  gesture  and  countenance  that  she  had  five  minutes 
before  she  was  drowned  in  Blednoch,  and  said  to  her,  ‘ Eliza- 
beth, go  and  warn  Provost  Cultrain  that  he  must  shortly  compear 
before  the  tribunal  of  the  great  God,  to  answer  for  his  ways 
and  immediately  her  sleep  was  broken,  and  it  made  such  an  im- 
pression upon  her,  that  she  resolved,  for  her  own  exoneration, 
and  the  provost’s  edification,  prudently  and  meekly  to  communi- 
cate the  said  dream  to  the  said  William  Cultrain,  of  Drummor- 
ral,  with  the  first  convenience  ; but  not  finding  or  expecting  that, 
she  told  the  dream  to  Bailie  Lafries,  Drummoral’s  friend,  being 
married  to  Lady  Drummoral’s  sister,  a man  of  age,  gravity,  and 
experience,  and  an  elder  in  Wigton;  and  solemnly  desired  and 
engaged  him  to  signify  the  said  dream  to  the  said  Drummoral ; 
and  she  doubted  not  but  the  said  Bailie  Lafries  did  tell  the  said 
DrummoraL  And,  accordingly,  in  the  beginning  of  November, 
1708,  he  rode  from  Wigton  to  the  quarter  session  of  the  justices 
of  the  shire,  that  met  that  time  at  Stranraer,  and  there,  on  Wed- 
nesday, at  the  court  table,  was  suddenly  struck  with  a lethargy, 
and  was  carried  to  his  quarters,  and  continued  speechless  till 
Saturday,  the  8th  of  November,  and  then  died.”t  Mr.  Campbell 
adds  : “ The  said  Elizabeth  is  poor  but  pious  ; a widow  indeed, 
the  worthy  daughter  of  such  an  honored,  martyred  mother.  It 
hath  pleased  God  lately  to  afflict  her  by  a sore  fall  in  her  walk- 
ing home  from  this  church ; and  having  a large  Bible  under  her 
arm,  and  falling  with  a great  deal  of  violence  upon  that  side 
where  her  Bible  was,  it  has  broken  some  of  her  ribs,  and  disa- 
bles her  for  business.  I have  been  her  acquaintance  these  six- 
teen years.  I know  she  is  poor  and  straitened;  but  I never 
heard  her  say  she  wanted  anything.  If  ye  please,  procure  and 
send  Mr.  Martin,  bookseller  at  Edinburgh  some  supply.” 

* The  letter  is  dated  April  11,  1718. 

t Letters  to  Wodrow,  vol.  x.,  4to,  No.  57.  In  a subsequent  letter  to  Wodrow, 
dated  Kirkinner,  May  14,  1718,  Mr.  Campbell  says,  “ Next  morning,  after  I was 
favored  with  yours,  1 discoursed  Elizabeth  Milliken,  but  she  can  not  give  you  fur- 
ther satisfaction  as  to  the  circumstances  of  that  dream  ; only  she  dreamed  it  in  her 
own  bed,  in  the  town  of  Barnbarroch  ; a*nd  all  the  relations  of  Provost  Cultrain  and 
Bailie  Lafries  deny  they  linow  anything  of  the  bailie’s  informing  the  provost,  or  the 
provost’s  answer.” — Ibid.,  vol.  x.,  4to,  No.  59. 


356 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


LADY  ANNE  MACKENZIE, 

COUNTESS  (W  BALCARRES,  AFTERWARD  COUNTESS  OF  ARGYLL. 

Lady  Anne  Mackenzie  was  the  eldest  daughter  and  coheiress 
of  Colin,  first  earl  of  Seaforth,  by  his  wife.  Lady  Margaret  Seton, 
third  daughter  of  Alexander,  first  earl  of  Dunfermline.  In  an 
old  MS.,  her  father,  who  was  the  most  powerful  of  the  Highland 
chiefs  next  to  Argyll,  is  described  as  “ a most  religious  and  vir- 
tuous lord.  He  caused  build  the  castle  of  Brahaii,  and  [in]  every 
barony  of  his  Highlands  caused  build  a church,  and  left  a dona- 
tion to  the  town  of  Channorie,  called  Fortrose,  to  hold  up  a gram- 
mar-school. He  was  much  liked  by  his  king,  and  by  all  that 
ever  was  with  him.”*  Lady  Anne,  in  early  life,  lost  her  father, 
who  died  on  the  15th  of  April,  1633,  leaving  behind  him  another 
daughter.  Lady  Jean.  Lady  Jean  was  married,  first,  to  John, 
master  of  Berriedale  ; and,  secondly,  to  Alexander,  first  Lord 
Duffus  ; having,  to  her  first  husband,  three  sons,  among  whom 
was  George,  sixth  earl  of  Caithness  ; and  to  her  second,  four 
sons.  She  died, in  childbed,  on  the  31st  of  March,  1648.  Lady 
Anne  and  her  sister  Lady  Jean  were  served  heirs-portioners  of 
their  father,  on  the  29th  of  November,  1636,  and  on  the  28th  of 
February,  1637.  As  in  these  retours  Lady  Anne  is  placed  first, 
it  may  be  concluded  that  she  was  the  eldest  daughter.  The  titles 
devolved  on  her  father’s  brother,  George,  who  thus  became  sec- 
ond earl  of  Seaforth.f 

Lady  Anne  received,  in  her  tender  years,  a scriptural  educa- 
tion, and  her  heart  appears  even  then  to  have  been  touched  by 
Divine  grace  with  love  to  God,  and  engaged  to  attend  in  good 
earnest  to  the  things  which  belonged  to  her  everlasting  peace. 
Besides  the  religious  instruction  received  under  the  domestic 
roof,  she  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  an  evangelical  and  faithful 
gospel  ministry.  She  had  also  opportunities  of  frequently 
mingling  in  the  society  of  such  as  feared  God.  Subjected  to 
these  and  other  religious  influences,  she  increased  in  piety  as 
she  advanced  in  days  and  years  ; growing  in  love  to  God,  in 
love  to  his  service,  and  in  love  to  those  who  gave  evidence  of 
being  his  children.  This  we  learn  from  the  reference  which 
Richard  Baxter,  the  celebrated  nonconformist  divine,  makes  to 
her  early  life,  in  a dedicatory  epistle  addressed  to  her,  prefixed 

^ duoted  in  Lord  Lindsay's  Lives  of  the  Lindsays,  vol.  ii.,  p.  33. 
t Douglas's  Peerage,  vol.  ii.,  p.  482. 


COUNTESS  OF  BALCARRES. 


357 


to  his  treatise,  entitled,  “ The  Mischiefs  of  Self-Ignorance,  and 
the  Benefits  of  Self-Acquaintance.”  Speaking  of  her  soul  as 
‘‘  replenished  with  the  precious  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  and  beautified 
with  the  image  of  her  Lord,”  he  says,  “ There  you  can  peruse 
the  records  of  his  mercy,  and  think  with  gratitude  and  delight 
how  he  did  first  illuminate  you,  and  draw  and  engage  your  heart 
unto  himself ; what  advantages  he  got  upon  you,  and  what  in- 
iquity he  prevented  by  the  mercies  of  your  education,  and  how 
he  secretly  took  acquaintance  with  you  in  your  youth ; how  he 
delivered  you  from  worldly  snares  ; how  he  caused  you  to  savor 
the  things  of  the  Spirit ; how  he  planted  you  in  a sound,  well- 
ordered  church,  where  he  quickened  and  conducted  you  by  a 
lively,  faithful  ministry,  and  watered  his  gifts  by  the  constant 
powerful  preaching  of  his  Word;  where  discipline  was  for  a 
defence  ; and  where  your  heart  was  warmed  with  the  commu- 
nion of  the  saints ; and  where  you  learned  to  worship  God  in 
spirit  and  in  truth  ; and  where  you  were  taught  so  effectually  by 
God  to  discern  between  the  precious  and  the  vile,  and  to  love 
those  that  are  born  of  God,  whom  the  world  knoweth  not,  that 
no  subtleties  or  calumnies  of  the  serpent  can  unteach  it  you,  or 
ever  be  able  to  separate  you  from  that  love.”* 

In  addition  to  early  piety.  Lady  Anne,  as  she  advanced  to  the 
age  of  womanhood,  possessed  great  personal  attractions,  and  a 
combination  of  the  best  qualities  which  can  adorn  the  female  mind. 
David,  Lord  Balcarres,  who  was  married  to  her  aunt  (her  moth- 
er’s sister.  Lady  Sophia  Seton,  fourth  daughter  of  Alexander,  first 
earl  of  Dunfermline,  and  in  whose  family,  on  paying  them  a 
visit,  she  occasionally  stayed  for  some  time),  describes  her  as  of 
“ a mild  nature  and  sweet  disposition,”  “ and  wise  withal.”  To 
this  nobleman  she  afterward  became  more  nearly  related,  by  her 
marriage  with  his  son  Alexander,  her  full  cousin,  who  was  “ so 
hopeful  a youth,  that  he  had  the  respect  and  love  of  all  that  knew 
him,”  and  who,  in  1650,  became  earl  of  Balcarres. t She  had 
early  made  a deep  impression  on  the  heart  of  Alexander,  and  his 
affection  for  her  he  had  long  cherished,  without  making  it  known 
either  to  herself  or  to  any  one  else.  But,  at  length,  about  the  close 
of  the  year  1639,  at  which  time  she  had  been  staying  for  some 
time  with  his  parents,  the  strength  of  his  passion  overcoming,  to 
a certain  extent,  the  bashful  timidity  of  early  and  honorable  love, 
he  told  both  his  father  and  mother,  three  days  before  she  left 

* Baxter’s  Works,  folio,  London,  1707,  vol.  ii.,  p.  762. 

t He  was  served  heir  to  his  father  on  the  24th  of  October,  1643  ; and  on  repairing 
to  Charles  II.,  upon  the  arrival  of  his  majesty  in  Scotland  in  1650,  was  created  by 
nim  earl  of  Balcarres. 


358 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


them,  which  was  in  November,  of  his  strong  attachment  to  her — 
that  it  had  “ been  rooted  in  his  heart  this  long  time,  and  [that  he] 
could  conceal  it  no  longer.”  He  also  told  his  mother  that  he 
‘‘  had  never  shown  any  such  thing  to  her  by  word,”  and  earnestly 
desired  her  to  speak  to  the  young  lady  in  his  behalf ; which,  how- 
ever, she  did  not  do,  though  she  afterward  wrote  to  her  on  the 
vsubject.  His  addresses  were  cordially  received  by  Lady  Anne,  who 
indeed  appears  very  soon  to  have  been  as  deeply  smitten  with  the 
tender  passion  as  himself.  But,  as  the  proverb  says,  the  course 
of  true  love  seldom  runs  smooth.  Her  uncle,  the  new  earl  of 
Seaforth,  from  motives  of  self-interest,  was  opposed  to  the  union, 
though  it  was  highly  agreeable  to  all  the  other  friends  of  both 
parties.  The  hearts  of  the  two  lovers  were,  indeed,  too  fully 
engaged  for  his  opposition  being  deemed  a sufficient  obstacle  to 
the  completion  of  their  wishes  ; but  they  were  very  desirous,  if 
possible,  to  secure  his  consent ; and  this  occasioned  an  interesting 
correspondence  between  the  families — from  which  our  space, 
however,  will  permit  us  to  give  only  one  or  two  extracts.  The 
first  letter  in  the  series  is  from  the  father  of  young  Balcarres  to 
the  earl  of  Lauderdale,  dated  November,  1639,  in  which  he  in- 
forms him  of  his  son’s  attachment  to  Lady  Anne  M‘Kenzie,  and 
of  the  earl  of  Seaforth’s  opposition  to  their  marriage,  “ because 
he  thought  he  had  no  new  alliance  by  it.”  Lauderdale,  in  his 
reply,  which  is  dated  the  28th  of  December,  after  expressing  it 
as  his  opinion  that  the  earl  of  Seaforth,  though  she  m'arried  with- 
out his  consent,  would  be  bound  to  pay  her  the  portion  left  her 
by  her  father’s  will,  notwithstanding  the  obligation  it  imposed 
upon  her  to  marry  with  the  consent  of  her  uncle,  adds  : “If  the 
case  were  my  own,  I would  gladly  go  about  to  obtain  his  con- 
sent ; but  if  he  should  prove  too  difficile,  I would,  as  the  proverb 
is,  ‘ Thank  God,  and  be  doing  without  his  approbation.’”  By 
this  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  lady’s  uncle,  the  pride  of  young 
Balcarres  was  somewhat  wounded,  and  his  temper  in  some  de- 
gree ruffled;  but,  secure  in  her  affection,  it  was  his  resolute  pur- 
pose, should  Seaforth  prove  unyielding,  to  act  upon  the  only 
alternative  then  left  him  (according  to  the  earl  of  Lauderdale’s 
advice),  to  marry  her  without  his  consent.  The  spirited  youth, 
mustering  up  his  self-respect,  thus  writes  to  John,  Lord  Lindsa^^ 
of  Byres  : “ Indeed,  my  lord,  I shall  be  very  glad  to  have  hfs 
consent  to  it,  and  shall  use  all  means  for  it,  since  he  is  her  uncle  ; 
but  if  he  will  not,  I believe  your  lordship  shall  as  publicly  see 
how  little  power  he  has  of  either  her  or  her  means,  and  that  I 
am  as  little  curious  for  alliance  with  him  as  he  is  with  me  if  I 


COUNTESS  OF  BALCARRES. 


359 


had  no  other  end  before  me  ; for,  in  truth,  it  is  neither  his  alliance 
nor  her  means  has  made  me  intend  it.”  Appeals  were  made  to 
the  earl  of  Seaforth,  in  favor  of  the  match,  in  letters  written  to 
him  by  Lord  Lindsay  of  Byres,  and  by  the  earls  of  Winton  and 
Dunfermline ; and  young  Balcarres  also  wrote  him  on  the  sub- 
ject in  a firm  but  respectful  tone.  At  last,  Seaforth,  finding  that 
his  opposition  would  prove  unavailing,  gave  a tardy  and  reluc- 
tant consent ; and  the  happy  pair,  after  this  vexatious  delay,  which 
young  Balcarres,  it  would  appear,  bore  with  no  small  degree  of 
impatience,  were  united  in  wedlock  in  April,  1640.* 

Among  the  friends  of  Lady  Anne,  who  warmly  advocated  the 
union,  was  the  earl  of  Rothes.  After  her  marriage,  this  nobleman 
wrote  her  a “ homely  but  a warm-hearted  letter,”  particularly  en- 
joining upon  her  the  duty  of  economy  in  the  new  situation  into 
which  she  was  now  brought.  The  letter,  which  is  dated  Les- 
lie, 15th  May,  1640,”  begins  thus  : “ My  Heart — I have  sent  Mr. 
David  Ay  ton  with  your  counts,  since  my  intromission  ;t  they  are 
very  clear  and  well  instructed  ; but  truly  your  expense  hath  been 
over-large  this  last  year  ; it  will  be  about  three  thousand  six  hun- 
dred merks,  which  indeed  did  discontent  me  when  I looked  on 
it.  I hope  you  will  mend  it  in  time  coming.  Your  husband,”  his 
lordship  adds,  “ hath  a very  noble  heart,  and  much  larger  than  his 
fortune,  and  except  you  be  both  an  example  and  exhorter  of  him 
to  be  sparing,  he  will  go  over-far ; both  he,  my  lord,  and  lady, 
love  you  so  well,  that  if  ye  incline  to  have  those  things  which 
will  beget  expense,  they  will  not  be  wanting,  although  it  should 
do  them  harm  ....  therefore  go  very  plain  in  your  clothes,  and 
play  very  little,  and  seek  God  heartily,  who  can  alone  make  your 
life  contented  here,  and  give  you  that  chief  content,  the  hope  of 
happiness  hereafter.  The  Lord  bless  you  !”f 

“ This  good  advice,”  says  Lord  Lindsay,  “ was  not  thrown 
away.  Never  did  any  marriage  turn  out  happier.  Lady  Anne 
proved  a most  affectionate  wife,  a most  kind  and  judicious  mother  ; 
and  though  of  the  ‘ mild  nature’  and  ‘ sweet  disposition’  praised 
by  Lord  Balcarres,  was  truly,  as  he  adds,  ‘ wise  withal,’  and  ca- 
pable, as  events  afterward  proved,  of  heroic  firmness,  and  the 
most  undaunted  resolution.” 

^ In  the  stirring  times  in  which  they  lived,  young  Balcarres  joined 
the  covenanters,  whom  he  greatly  aided  both  by  his  counsels  in 
the  cabinet  and  by  his  valor  in  the  field.  He  commanded  a troop 

^ Lord  Lindsay’s  Lives  of  the  Lindsays,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  34-44. 

t That  is,  “ Since  1 acted  in  your  affairs.” 

X Lord  Lindsay’s  Lives  of  the  Lindsays,  vol.  ii.,  p.  44. 


36C  the  ladies  OF  THE  COVENANT. 

of  horse  in  the  covenanter§’  army^  at  the  battle  of  Alford,  2d  of 
July,  1645,  when  General  Baillie  was  defeated  by  the  marquis 
of  Montrose.  He  was  one  of  the.  commissioners  despatched' by 
the  parliament  of  Scotland,  19th  of  December,  1646,  to  King 
Charles  L,  with  their  last  proposals,  which  his  majesty  rejected  ; 
upon  which  the  Scottish  army  surrendered  him  to  the  English 
parliament,  and  retired  from  England.  He  was,  however,  of  un- 
daunted loyalty  to  his  sovereign,  which  indeed  he  carrifjd  too 
far,  supporting  the  duke  of  Hamilton’s  engagement — an  underta- 
king justly  considered  inconsistent  with  the  obligation  of  the  Sol- 
emn League  and  Covenant.  When  Charles  II.  marched  into 
England,  in  1651,  he  was  left  to  command  the  troops  on  the 
north  of  the  Forth,  and  in  the  Highlands,  where,  through  his  mar- 
riage with  the  daughter  of  the  earl  of  Seaforth,  and  his  friendship 
with  the  marquis  of  Huntly,  and  the  clans,  he  had  great  power. 
But  the  affairs  of  Charles  becoming,  on  the  defeat  of  his  army  at 
Worcester,  to  all  appearance  hopeless,  the  earl,  in  December  that 
year,  capitulated  with  the  English  on  favorable  conditions,  and 
disbanded  his  regiments.  In  1652,  he  settled  with  his  family  at 
St.  Andrews,  keeping  up  a correspondence  with  his  exiled  sov- 
ereign ; and,  in  1653,  he  again  took  up  arms,  and  joined  in  a last 
ineffectual  attempt  to  uphold  the  royal  cause  against  Cromwell. 
In  January,  1654,  his  estates  were  sequestrated  by  Cromwell** 
and  he  withdrew  to  the  continent,  joining  Charles  H.  at  Paris. f 
Lady  Balcarres,  from  the  strength  of  her  affection  for  the  earl, 
shared  in  the  hardships  and  dangers  to  which  he  was  exposed, 
in  those  troublous  times,  accompanying  him  in  all  his  military 
wanderings.  ‘‘  The  earl  of  Balcarres,”  says  Baxter,  ‘‘  was  a cov- 
enanter, but  an  enemy  to  Cromwell’s  perfidiousness,  and  true  to 
the  person  and  authority  of  the  king ; with  the  earl  of  Glencairn 
he  kept  up  the  last  war  for  the  king  against  Cromwell ; and  his 
lady,  through  dearness  of  affection,  marched  with  him,  and  lay 
out  of  doors  with  him  on  the  mountains. And  when  the  earl 
was  driven  out  of  Scotland  by  Cromwell,  she  accompanied  him 
to  the  continent,  where,  for  several  years,  they  followed  the  court. 
During  her  abode  in  France,  “ being  zealous  for  the  king’s  res- 
toration (for  whose  cause  her  husband  had  pawned  and  ruined  his 
estate),  by  the  earl  of  Lauderdale’s  direction,  she,  with  Sir  Rob- 

^ Lamont’s  Diary,  p.  66.  One  George  Fleming  had  a charter  of  Balcarres,  8th 
December,  1653,  and  sasine  of  Balcarres  was  passed  in  favor  of  Hew  Hamilton, 
bailie  of  Edinburgh,  by  Oliver  Cromwell,  7th  March,  1655.  Haigh  Muniment-room.'’ 
— Lord  Lindsay's  Lives  of  the  Lindsays,  vol.  ii,,  pp,  104,  105. 

t Douglas's  Peerage,  vol.  i..  pp.  167,  168. 

t Sylvester’s  Reliquiae  Baxterianas,  part  i.,  p.  121. 


COUNTESS  OF  BALCARRES. 


361 


ert  Murray,  got  diverse  letters  from  the  pastors  and  others  there, 
to  bear  witness  of  the  king’s  sincerity  in  the  protestant  religion.”* 
Amid  all  these  vicissitudes  in  her  lot,  Lady  Balcarres  expe- 
rienced much  domestic  happiness.  Her  esteem,  tenderness,  and 
affection,  toward  the  earl,  were  reciprocated  by  a corresponding 
esteem,  tenderness,  and  affection  on  his  part  toward  her.  He 
knew  her  worth  ; he  reposed  with  much  confidence  in  her  judg- 
ment ; and  the  lapse  of  time  produced  not  the  slightest  abate- 
ment of  the  ardor  of  early  affection.  They  were  favored  with 
fine  children,  who  promised  to  be  lovely  and  good  like  themselves, 
and  the  blessing  of  Heaven  seemed  to  rest  upon  them.  Baxter, 
in  writing  to  her,  speaking  of  God’s  goodness  to  her,  in  both  a 
temporal  and  spiritual  respect,  says  : “ You  may  read  in  these  sa- 
cred records  of  your  heart,  how  the  Angel  of  the  covenant  hath 
hitherto  conducted  you  through  this  wilderness,  toward  the  land 
of  promise  ; how  he  hath  been  a cloud  to  you  in  the  day,  and  a 
pillar  of  fire  by  night ; how  the  Lord  did  number  you  with  the 
people  that  are  his  flock,  his  portion,  and  the  lot  of  his  inheri- 
tance ; and  led  you  about  in  a desert  land,  instructed  you,  and 
kept  you  as  the  apple  of  his  eye  (Deut.  xxxii.  9,  10).  His 
manna  hath  compassed  your  tent ; his  doctrine  hath  dropped  as 
the  rain,  and  his  words  distilled  as  the  dew ; as  the  small  rain 
upon  the  tender  herb,  and  as  the  showers  upon  the  grass  (ver.  2). 
As  his  beloved,  you  have  dwelt  in  safety  by  him,  and  the  Lord 
hath  covered  you  all  the  day  long  (chap,  xxxiii.  12).  When  storms 
have  risen,  he  hath  been  your  refuge  ; and  when  dangers  com- 
passed you  on  every  side,  he  hath  hid  you  as  in  his  pavilion,  and 
his  angels  have  pitched  their  tents  about  you,  and  borne  you  up. 
You  have  been  fortified  in  troubles,  and  enabled  comfortably  to 
undergo  them.  In  war  and  in  peace  ; in  your  native  country 
and  in  foreign  lands  ; among  your  friends  and  among  your  ene- 
mies ; in  court  and  country ; in  prosperity  and  adversity,  you 
have  found  that  ‘ there  is  none  like  the  God  of  Israel,  who  rideth 
upon  the  heaven  in  your  help,  and  his  excellency  on  the  sky  : 
the  eternal  God  hath  been  your  refuge,  and  underneath  are  the 
everlasting  arms’  (Deut.  xxxiv.  26,  27.”t 

Baxter,  who  thus  addresses  her,  personally  knew  both  her  and 
her  husband.  The  earl  of  Balcarres  had,  upon  the  recommen- 
dation of  lord,  afterward  duke,  Lauderdale, j:  read  some  of  the 

* Sylvester’s  Reliquias  Baxterianae,  part  i.,  p.  121. 

t Epistle  Dedicatory  prefixed  to  the  treatise  on  the  Mischiefs  of  Self-Ignorance, 
Baxter’s  Works,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  762-7(i4. 

t Lauderdale,  at  first,  seemed  eminently  religious ; was  a warm  presbyterian, 
and  zealous  for  the  covenant.  He  was  detained  prisoner,  after  the  battle  of  Wor- 

31 


362 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


works  of  Baxter,  which,  after  a careful  perusal,  he  reckoned 
among  the  best  of  uninspired  theological  writings.  Nor  did  Lady 
Balcarres,  who  had  also  been  induced  to  read  them,  fall  short  of 
her  lord  in  the  judgment  she  formed  of  their  great  merits  ; and, 
from  reading  them,  she  had  acquired  a veneration  for  the  charac- 
ter of  “ the  Hercules  of  nonconformity,”  as  Baxter  is  styled  by 
Foster,  even  before  she  had  seen  him.  On  their  becoming  per- 
sonally acquainted,  he  was  often  a visitant  at  her  residence,  be- 
ing at  all  times  welcome  ; and  when  resident  in  London,  she  reg- 
ularly attended  his  ministry.  Baxter,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
much  attracted  by  the  Christian  excellence  of  her  character,  and 
regarded  her  as  one  of  the  most  eminently  pious  ladies  of  her 
day.  Some  of  his  practicable  works  were  published  at  her  re- 
quest ; and  it  is  to  the  dedications  of  some  of  his  works  to  her, 
and  to  his  “ History  of  his  Life  and  Times,”  written  by  himself, 
that  we  are  chiefly  indebted  for  what  we  know  respecting  her 
during  the  first  half  of  her  life.  In  the  following  passage  from 
the  work  last  referred  to,  he  informs  us  of  the  origin  of  his  friend- 
ship with  her,  and  pronounces  a high  encomium  upon  her  Chris- 
tian excellence  : “When  the  earl  of  Lauderdale,  his  [Lord  Bal- 
carres’s]  near  kinsman  and  great  friend,  was  prisoner  in  Ports- 
mouth and  Windsor  castle,  he  fell  into  acquaintance  with  my 
books  ; and  so  valued  them  that  he  read  them  all,  and  took  notes 
of  them,  and  earnestly  commended  them  to  the  earl  of  Balcar- 
res, with  the  king.  The  earl  of  Balcarres  met,  at  the  first  sight, 
with  some  passages  where  he  thought  I spoke  too  favorably  of 
the  papists,  and  differed  from  many  other  protestants,  and  so  cast 
them  by,  and  sent  the  reason  of  his  distaste  to  the  earl  of  Lauder- 
dale, who  pressed  him  but  to  read  one  of  the  books  over  ;*  which 
he  did,  and  so  read  them  all  (as  I have  seen  many  of  them  marked 
with  his  hand) ; and  was  drawn  to  over-value  them  more  than 
the  earl  of  Lauderdale.  Hereupon  his  lady,  reading  them  also, 
and  being  a woman  of  very  strong  love  and  friendship,  with  ex- 
traordinary entireness  swallowed  up  in  her  husband’s  love,  for 
the  books’  sake,  and  her  husband’s  sake,  she  became  a most  af- 
fectionate friend  to  me,  before  she  ever  saw  me.  . . . Her 

great  wisdom,  modesty,  piety,  and  sincerity,  made  her  accounted 

cester,  in  1651,  in  different  places,  and  was  released  from  Windsor  castle  just  be- 
fore the  restoration.  In  a letter  to  Baxter,  dated  “ Windsor  castle,  December  14, 
1658,  ’ there  is  the  following  passage  : “ I wish  I knew  any  were  fit  to  translate 
your  books  ; I am  sure  they  would  take  hugely  abroad  ; and  I think  it  were  not 
amiss  to  begin  with  the  ‘ Call  to  the  Unconverted.’  ” — duoted  in  Dr.  Calamy’s  Life 
by  Himself,  in  a foot-note  by  the  Editor,  vol.  i.,  p.  102.  This  sounds  strangely  when 
compared  with  Lauderdale’s  future  character. 

Over,  that  is,  through. 


COUNTESS  OF  BALCARRES. 


363 


the  saint  at  the  court.  When  she  came  over  with  the  king,  her 
extraordinary  respects  obliged  me  to  be  so  often  with  her,  as 
gave  me  acquaintance  with  her  eminency  in  all  the  aforesaid  vir- 
tues. She  is  of  solid  understanding  in  religion  for  her  sex,  and 
of  prudence  much  more  than  ordinary ; and  of  great  integrity 
and  constancy  in  her  religion,  and  a great  hater  of  hypocrisy, 
and  faithful  to  Christ  m an  unfaithful  world ; and  she  is  some- 
what over-much  affectionate  to  her  friends,  which  hath  cost  her 
a great  deal  of  sorrow  in  the  loss  of  her  husband,  and  since,  of 
other  special  friends,  and  may  cost  her  more  when  the  rest  for- 
sake her — as  many  in  prosperity  use  to  do  those  that  will  not 
forsake  fidelity  to  Christ Being  my  constant  audi- 

tor, and  over-respectful  friend,  I had  occasion  for  the  just  praises 
and  acknowledgments  which  I have  given  her.’** 

Lady  Balcarres  had  not  been  many  years  on  the  continent, 
when  she  was  visited  with  a severe  domestic  affliction,  in  the 
death  of  the  earl.  His  political  opponents  having,  by  their  slan- 
ders, prejudiced  the  mind  of  Charles  against  him,  he  was,  for  a 
time  forbidden  the  court ; “ the  grief  whereof,”  says  Baxter,  “ ad- 
ded to  the  distempers  he  had  contracted  by  his  warfare  on  the 
cold  and  hungry  mountains,  cast  him  into  a consumption,  of  which 
he  died.”t  But  death  did  not  find  him  unprepared.  His  life  had 
been  that  of  the  righteous.  According  to  a sketch  of  his  char- 
acter, in  a MS.  of  the  period,  he  made  “ conscience  of  all  his  ac- 
tions, as  if  every  day  he  was  to  render  an  account  to  Him  that 
made  him.  . . He  had  his  times  of  devotion  three  times  a 

day,  except  some  extraordinary  business  hindered  him  ; in  the 
morning,  from  the  time  he  was  dressed  until  eleven  o’clock,  he 
read  upon  the  Bible  and  divinity  books,  and  prayed  and  medita- 
ted ; then  at  half  an  hour  past  . . till  near  seven  ; then  at 

ten  o’clock  to  eleven.”^ 

During  the  whole  of  his  last  illness,  the  countess  watched  by 
his  bedside  with  the  most  affectionate  tenderness  ; and,  painful 
as  it  was  to  her  to  look  upon  his  sufferings,  she  had  the  consola- 
tion— the  highest  she  could  have  enjoyed  in  the  circumstances 
— of  witnessing  the  heavenly  peace  and  joy  which  filled  his  soul 
in  the  prospect  of  eternity.  On  one  occasion  he  comforted  her 
in  these  words,  “ You  ought  to  rejoice,  because  I may  say,  as 
my  blessed  Savior  did,  when  he  was  to  depart  from  his  disciples, 
Let  not  your  hearts  be  troubled,  for  I go  to  my  heavenly  Father  ; I 
go  from  persecution  and  calumny  to  the  company  of  angels,  and 

* Sylvester’s  Reliquias  Baxterianas,  part  i.,  p.  121.  t Ibid. 

t duoted  lA  Lord  Lindsay’s  Lives  of  the  Lindsays,  vol.  ii.,  p.  107. 


364 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect.”  He  added,  “ How  sweet  is 
rest  to  a wearied  soul,  and  such  a rest  as  this  is  that  I am  going 
to ! Oh  blessed  rest ! where  we  shall  never  cease,  day  nor 
night,  from  saying,  ‘ Holy,  holy,  holy.  Lord  God  Almighty !’ 
where  we  shall  rest  from  sinning,  but  not  from  praising.”  At 
another  time,  Mr.  Patrick  Forbes*  having  asked  him,  “ My  lord, 
do  you  forgive  all  your  enemies,  that  have  so  maliciously  perse- 
cuted you  ?”  he  replied,  “ Ay,  ay,  Mr.  Forbes,  long  ago.  I bless 
God  that  is  not  to  do.”  On  the  last  day  of  his  life,  the  countess 
asked  him,  “ My  love,  how  is  it  with  you  now,  have  you  gotten 
that  measure  of  assurance  you  desired  ?”  He  said,  “ All  I can 
answer  to  you  is,  that  I bless  my  Redeemer  for  it ! I am  as  full 
of  joy  with  the  assurance  I have  that  my  Redeemer  is  mine,  and 
I am  his,  as  my  heart  can  hold.”  After  some  little  struggling 
with  death,  he  said  to  her,  ‘‘  My  dear,  I follow  a good  Guide, 
who  will  never  quit  me,  and  Twill  never  quit  him.”  “ Hold  you 
there,  my  dear,”  she  replied,  ‘‘  for  there  you  are  safe  ; he  is  a 
shield  and  buckler  to  them  that  trust  in  him ; he  is  the  munition 
of  rocks.”  He  often  observed  that  afternoon  that  the  Lord  called 
him,  using  these  words,  “ Come,  Lord  Jesus,  thou  tarriest  long.” 
Finding  that  his  death  was  fast  approaching,  the  countess  said 
to  him,  “ Have  courage,  my  love  ! your  redemption  draws  near ; 
your  blessed  Lord  is  making  fast  ready,  accompanied  by  his  an- 
gels, to  attend  you  to  that  mansion  he  prepared  for  you  before 
the  world  was  ; he  will  go  tlirough  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death  with  you.”  Upon  which  he  laid  both  his  feeble  hands 
about  her  neck,  and,  with  the  small  strength  he  had,  drew  her  into 
him,  and  said,  “ I must  take  my  last  farewell  of  thee,  my  dear- 
est!” and,  after  expressing  the  ardor  of  his  affection  for  her,  de- 
sired her  to  pray  that  the  passage  might  be  easy.  It  was  re- 
markably so,  indeed  ; for,  soon  after  having  looked  up  to  heaven 
and  prayed,  he  gently  breathed  out  his  soul  into  the  hands  of  the 
Savior  who  redeemed  it.  He  died  at  Breda,  on  the  30th  of  Au- 
gust, 1659,  at  the  early  age  of  forty-one  ;t  and  his  body  was 
brought  over  to  Scotland,  and  buried  in  the  church  at  Balcarres.| 
This  nobleman,  as  he  well  deserved,  obtained  a high  place,  in 

* Mr.  Patrick  Forbes  was  the  eon  of  Mr.  John  Forbes,  minister  of  Alford,  who 
was  banished  his  majesty’s  dominion  for  life,  in  the  reign  of  James  VI.,  for  defend- 
ing the  liberty  of  the  presbyterian  church  of  Scotland.  Deserting  his  father’s  prin- 
ciples, he  conformed  to  prelacy,  after  the  Restoration,  and  was  made  bishop  of 
Orkney.  t Lord  Lindsay's  Lives  of  the  Lindsays,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  104-110. 

t Lament’s  Diary,  p.  123.  “ The  remains  of  Lord  Balcarres,”  says  this  writer, 

“landed  at  Elie,  2d  December,  1659,  and  some  days  after  were  carried  to  Balcar- 
res, and  this  I2th  Jan.  [1660],  were  interred  at  Balcarres,  in  the  ordinary  burial- 
place,  with  suiting  solemnity,’’ 


COUNTESS  OF  BALCARRES. 


365 


the  estimation  of  his  country,  for  ability,  wisdom,  virtue,  and 
piety.  Robert  Baillie  describes  him,  as  ‘‘without  doubt  one  of 
the  most  brave  and  able  gentlemen  of  our  nation,  if  not  the  most 
able  and  Baxter,  as  “ a lord  of  excellent  learning,  judgment, 
and  honesty ; none  being  praised  equally  with  him,  for  learning 
and  understanding,  in  all  Scotland.”!  His  zeal  in  the  cause  of 
the  covenant,  with  the  exception  of  his  concern  in  “ the  engage- 
ment,” is  attested  by  Mr.  Samuel  Rutherford,  who,  as  those  who 
have  read  his  letters  will  readily  admit,  was  not  disposed  to  speak 
with  flattering  lips  to  the  greatest.  In  a letter  to  him,  dated 
‘‘  St.  Andrews,  December  24,  1649,”  he  says,  “ Lord  Balcarres, 
whose  public  deservings  have  been  such  that  I esteem  him  to 
have  been  most  instrumental  in  this  work  of  God.  I hope,  my 
lord,  you  will  pardon  me  to  make  a little  exception  in  the  matter 
of  the  late  sinful  engagement.”^  Crowley  wrote  an  elegiac 
poem  upon  his  death  ; in  which  he  celebrates  his  talents,  virtues, 
and  piety,  and  deplores  his  premature  removal ; nor  does  he  for- 
get to  commemorate  the  worth  of  the  noble  lady  of  the  departed. 
The  following  extracts  are  from  the  concluding  verses  * — 

“ Noble  and  great  endeavors  did  he  bring 
To  save  his  country,  and  restore  his  king 
And  whilst  the  manly  half  of  him,  which  those 
Who  know  not  love,  to  be  the  whole  suppose, 

Performed  all  parts  of  virtue’s  life  ; 

The  beauteous  half,  his  lovely  wife, 

Did  all  his  labors  and  his  cares  divide  ; 

Nor  was  a lame  nor  paralytic  side, 

In  all  the  turns  of  hunjan  state  ; 

In  all  th’  unjust  attacks  of  fate 

She  bore  her  share  and  portion  still. 

And  would  not  suffer  any  to  be  ill.” 

i(-  if  * if 

“ His  wisdom,  justice,  and  his  piety, 

His  courage  both  to  suffer  and  to  die. 

His  virtues,  and  his  lady,  too. 

Were  things  celestial.” 

By  this  nobleman,  the  countess  had  issue,  two  sons,  and  three 
daughters:  1.  Charles,  second  earl  of  Balcarres,  who  died  in 
1662  ; 2.  Colin,  who,  on  the  death  of  his  brother  Charles,  be- 
came third  earl  of  Balcarres  ; 3.  Lady  Anne  ; 4.  Lady  Sophia; 
and  5.  Lady  Henrietta. 

The  death  of  the  earl,  whom  she  loved  so  tenderly,  inflicted  a 
deep  wound  on  the  heart  of  Lady  Balcarres,  though  she  sorrow- 
ed not  concerning  him  as  those  who  had  no  hope ; and  sought 

Letters,  vol.  iii.,  p.  437.  t Sylvester’s  Reliquiae  Baxterianae,  part  i.,  p.  121. 

I Rutherford’s  Letters,  Whyte  and  Kennedy’s  edition,  p.  716.  This  letter  is  pub- 
lished in  that  edition  for  the  first  time. 

31* 


366 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


consolation  by  unburdening  her  grief  to  ber  heavenly  Father, 
trusting  that,  true  to  his  promise,  he  would  never  leave  nor  for- 
sake her.  Having  resolved  on  bringing  home  his  body  for  inter- 
ment at  Balcarres,  she  left  Breda  for  Scotland,  accompanying,  or 
following  his  mortal  remains  to  their  final  resting-place.  After 
the  last  sad  offices  of  respect  were  performed  to  his  mortal  part, 
she  started  from  Balcarres  for  London,  on  the  12th  of  July,  1660, 
taking  her  children  along  with  her.*  In  London,  where  she 
stayed  a considerable  time,  she  had  many  opportunities  of  meet- 
ing with  her  friend,  Richard  Baxter,  a man  well  qualified  to  ad- 
minister religious  consolation  to  her,  under  the  loss  of  the  hus- 
band of  her  youth.  But  while  resident  in  the  English  capital,  a 
new,  and  an  unexpected  trial  befell  her  in  the  conversion  of  her 
daughter.  Lady  Anne,  to  Roman  Catholicism.  Lady  Anne  ap- 
pears to  have  been  a young  person  of  high  promise  ; but,  led 
away  by  the  artful  and  insinuating  persuasions  of  the  Jesuits 
about  the  court  (and  the  queen-dowager  seems  to  have  been 
privy  to  the  business),  she  became  enchanted  with  popery,  and 
openly  embraced  it.  On  receiving  the  news  of  this  conversion. 
Lady  Balcarres  was  so  deeply  grieved  as,  it  would  appear,  to 
suffer  considerably  in  her  health  ;t  and,  anxious  for  the  recovery 
of  her  daughter  to  the  truth,  she  requested  Dr.  Gunning,  after- 
ward bishop  of  Chichester,  to  endeavor  to  get  a meeting  with  the 
corrupters  of  the  young  lady’s  faith,  in  order  to  his  arguing  with 
them,  in  her  presence,  against  the  popish  doctrines.  But  she 
was  unfortunate  in  the  choice  of  her  man  ; Dr.  Gunning,  from  his 
bigoted  high  church  principles,  being  more  fitted  to  confirm  her 
daughter  in  Romanism  than  to  convert  her  from  it.  “ The  coun- 
tess of  Balcarres,”  says  Baxter,  “ told  me,  that  when  she  first 
heard  of  it,  she  desired  Dr.  Gunning  to  meet  with  the  priest,  to 
dispute  with  him,  and  try  if  her  daughter  might  be  recovered, 
who  pretended  then  to  be  in  doubt ; and  that  Dr.  Gunning  first 
began  to  persuade  her  daughter  against  the  church  of  Scotland, 
which  she  had  been  bred  in,  as  no  true  church,  and  after  disputed 
about  the  pope’s  infallibility,  and  left  her  daughter  worse  than 
before  ; and  that  she  took  it  to  be  a strange  way  to  deliver  her 
daughter  from  popery,  to  begin  with  a condemnation  of  the  re- 
formed churches  as  no  true  churches,  and  confess  that  the  church 
and  ministry  of  Rome  was  true.”f  She  next  applied  to  Baxter, 

* Lamont’s  Dian%  p,  123.  t Reliquiae  Baxterianae,  part  i.,  pp.  219-229. 

t “ Hearing  that  the  countess  of  Balcarres  was  not  well,  I went  to  visit  her,  and 
found  her  grievously  afflicted  for  her  eldest  daughter,  the  Lady  Anne  Lindsay, 
about  sixteen  or  seventeen  years  of  age,  who  was  suddenly  turned  papist,  by  she 
knew  not  whom." — Sylvester’s  Reliquiae  Baxterianae,  part  ii.,  p.  219. 


COUNTESS  OF  BALCARRES. 


367 


a more  suitable  man,  who,  to  promote  her  object,  was  willing  to 
discuss  the  question  of  the  Romish  faith  with  any  champion  of 
the  Romish  church,  in  the  presence  of  Lady  Anne.  But  all  the 
efforts  of  Baxter  to  obtain  such  a discussion*  were  without  suc- 
cess ; for  the  perverters  of  the  young  lady’s  faith  kept  themselves 
behind  the  curtain,  and  they  were,  besides,  sufficiently  conscious 
of  their  inability  to  grapple  with  a man  of  Baxter’s  calibre,  as 
well  as  too  cunning  to  expose  themselves  to  the  risk  of  losing  a 
convert,  of  whom  they,  seem  to  have  prided  themselves  not  a 
little.  At  last  they  stole  her  away  secretly  from  her  mother,  in 
a coach.  A servant  went  after  her,  and  overtook  her  in  Lin- 
coln’s-Inn  Fields.  She  positively  promised  to  the  servant  to 
come  back,  saying  she  went  only  to  see  a friend.  But  she  never 
came  back.f  She  was  conveyed  to  France,  and  there  placed  in 
a nunnery,  where,  to  put  the  most  charitable  construction  upon 
her  conduct,  she  possibly  might  expect  to  escape  the  temptations 
she  would  encounter  in  the  world,  and  live  without  distraction, 
in  constant  meditation  upon  God  and  divine  things — for  that  is 
the  reason  assigned  by  the  Roman  catholics  for  the  unnatural 
seclusion  of  the  cloister — but  wher'te  she  would  be  deprived  of 
the  opportunities  of  benevolent  activity,  which  are  only  to  be 
found  by  mixing  with  the  world,  and  where  she  would  meet  with 
the  temptations  peculiar  to  the  recluse,  and  peculiar  to  popish 
nunneries.  Baxter,  writing  to  the  counfess,  August  25,  1661, 
when  enumerating  the  mercies  of  her  lot,  says,  You  may  re- 
member ....  your  comfort  in  your  hopeful  issue,  though  abated 
by  the  injury  of  Romish  theft,  which  stole  one  of  the  roses  of 
your  garden,  that  they  might  boast  of  the  sweetness  when  they 
called  it  their  own : I may  well  say  stole  it,  when  all  the  cheat 
was  performed  by  unknown  persons  in  the  dark ; and  no  impor- 
tunity by  you  or  me,  could  procure  me  one  dispute  or  conference 
in  her  hearing,  with  any  of  the  seducers,  before  her  person  was 
stolen  away.”J  Not  long  after  her  departure.  Lady  Anne  sent  a 

* These  efforts  are  stated  at  length  in  Reliquiae  Baxterianas,  p?irt  ii.,  pp.  219, 
220,  to  which  the  reader  is  refetred. 

t How  speedily  does  popery  pervert  the  mind  ! “ Her  mother  told  me,”  says 

Baxter,  “that  before  she  turned  papist  she  scarce  ever  heard  a lie  from  her,  and 
since  then,  she  could  believe  nothing  that  she  said.”  Among  other  instances  of  her 
disregard  to  truth,  he  mentions,  that  “she  complained  to  the  queen-mother  of  her 
mother,  as  if  she  used  her  hardly  for  religion,  which  was  false ;”  and  yet,  such  are 
the  delusions  of  popery,  that,  writing  to  her  mother  from  Calice,  in  France,  she 
says,  “ I felt  no  true  love  to  God  in  my  soul  before ; but  as  soon  as  I turned  papist  I 
did,  and  have  now  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  his  image,  which  before  I never  had.” 

% Baxter’s  Works,  vol.  ii.,  p.  761,  Dedication  of  his  “Mischiefs  of  Self-Ignorance,” 
dated  August  25,  1661.  Baxter  sent  a letter  to  her,  the  day  before  she  was  stolen 
away,  dated  December  1, 1660,  which  is  inserted  in  Reliquiae  Baxterianae,  part  ii., 
pp.  219-221. 


368 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


letter  to  her  mother,  from  her  nunnery,  dated  Calice,  and  sub- 
scribed “ Sister  Anna  Maria,”  giving  the  reasons  why  she  had 
changed  her  religion.  Her  mother  showed  the  letter  to  Baxter, 
and  desired  him  to  write  an  answer  "to  it ; which  he  did,  though 
he  knew  those  in  whose  power  she  now  was,  “ were  not  likely 
to  suffer  her  to  read  it and  it  was  sent  to  her  by  her  mother. 
It  is  dated  January  29,  1661  ; and  among  other  things  he  says, 
“We  shall  have  leave  to  pray  for  you,  though  we  can  not  have 
leave  to  instruct  you,  and  God  may  hear  us  when  you  will  not : 
which  I have  the  more  hopes  of,  because  of  the  piety  of  your 
parents,  and  the  prayers  and  tears  of  a tender-hearted  mother, 
poured  out  for  you,  and  your  own  well-meaning,  pious  disposi- 
tion.” But  all  the  means  employed  to  recover  her  to  the  protes- 
tant  faith  were  in  vain.  She  continued  to  the  day  of  her  death 
in  the  nunnery  to  which  she  had  been  carried  away,  but  the  par- 
ticular year  in  which  she  died  is  unknown.  What  made  the 
fate  of  Lady  Anne  the  more  trying  to  her  mother  was,  that  she 
was  her  favorite  daughter.  “ This,”  says  Baxter,  “ was  the 
darling  of  that  excellent,  wise,  religious  lady,  the  widow  of  an 
excellent  lord,  which  made  the  affliction  great,  and  taught  her  to 
moderate  her  affections  to  all  creatures.”*  He  adds,  “ This  per- 
version had  been  a long  time  secretly  working  before  she  knew 
of  it ; all  which  time  the  young  lady  would  join  in  prayer  with 
her  mother,  and  jeer  at  popery,  till  she  was  detected,  and  then 
she  said,  she  might  join  with  them  no  more.” 

Lady  Balcarres  continued  in  London  for  some  months  after 
the  flight  of  her  daughter  to  France.  At  length,  when  about  to 
depart  for  Scotland,  feeling  the  death  of  her  husband  still  pres- 
sing heavy  upon  her,  aggravated  by  the  fate  of  her  eldest  daugh- 
ter, and  “ being  deeply  sensible  of  the  loss  of  the  company  of 
those  friends  which  she  left  behind  her,”  she  desired  Baxter  to 
preach  the  last  sermon  she  was  to  hear  from  him,  on  these  words 
of  the  Savior,  in  John  xvi.  32  : “ Behold,  the  hour  cometh,  yea, 
is  come,  that  ye  shall  be  scattered  every  man  to  his  own,  and 
shall  leave  me  alone  ; and  yet  I am  not  alone,  because  the  Father 
is  with  me.”  This  passage  of  scripture  had  often  recurred  to 
her  thoughts  ; and  it  seemed  so  extremely  appropriate  to  her  con- 
dition, and  had  proved  so  powerful  a means  of  soothing  her  grief, 
that  she  was  very  desirous  of  listening  to  such  reflections  upon 
it  as  might  suggest  themselves  to  a man  of  so  enlarged  an  under- 
standing and  so  matured  experience  as  was  Richard  Baxter. 
With  her  request  Baxter  readily  complied ; nor  was  she  content 
Reliquias  Baxterianae,  part  li.,  pp.  219-229. 


COUNTESS  OF  BALCARRES.  369 

with  hearing  it  preached,  but  requested  him  to  give  her  a copy 
of  it  in  writing ; and  judging  it  was  fitted  to  be  useful  to  such  as 
might  be  placed  in  circumstances  similar  to  her  own,  she  was 
urgent  with  him  to  publish  it.*  '* 

The  exact  time  when  Lady  Balcarres  left  London  for  Scotland 
is  uncertain.  From  some  statements  made  in  Baxter’s  dedication 
to  her  of  his  treatise,  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made 
(“  The  Mischiefs  of  Self-Ignorance,  and  the  Benefits  of  Self-Ac- 
quaintance, opened  in  diverse  Sermons,  at  Dunstan’s-West ; and 
published  in  answer  to  the  Accusations  of  some,  and  the  Desires 
of  others”),  it  would  appear  that  she  had  left  London  previous  to 
the  25th  of  August,  1661,  the  date  of  the  dedication.  “If  one 
kingdom,”  says  he,  “ do  not  hold  us,  and  I should  see  your  face 
no  more  on  earth,  yet,  till  we  meet  in  the  glorious,  everlasting 
kingdom,  we  shall  have  frequent  converse  by  such  means  as 
these,  notwithstanding  our  corporal  distance.  And  as  I am  as- 
sured of  a room  in  your  frequent  prayers,  so  I hope  I shall 
remain,  madam,  your  faithful  servant,  and  remembrancer  at  the 
throne  of  grace.”! 

Lady  Balcarres  had  heard  the  sermons  which  compose  that 
volume  delivered  from  the  pulpit;  and  so  eminently  calculated, 
in  her  judgment,  were  they — from  the  importance  of  the  subject, 
and  from  the  judicious  manner  in  which  it  was  treated — to  be  of 
general  utility,  that  she  earnestly  solicited  Baxter  to  publish 
them  to  the  world.  His  dedication  commences  thus  : “ Madam, 
though  it  be  usual  in  dedications  to  proclaim  the  honor  of  in- 
scribed names,  and  though  the  proclaiming  of  yours  be  a work 
that  none  are  like  to  be  offended  at  that  know  you,  they  esteem- 
ing you  the  honor  of  your  sex  and  nation  ; yet,  that  you  may  see 
I intend  not  to  displease  you  by  any  unsafe  or  unsavory  applause, 
I shall  presume  to  lay  a double  dishonor  upon  you  : the  one,  by 
prefixing  your  name  to  these  lean  and  hasty  sermons  ; the  other, 
by  laying  part  of  the  blame  upon  yourself,  and  telling  the  world 
that  the  fault  is  partly  yours  that  they  are  published.  Not  only 
yours,  I confess  ; for  had  it  not  been  for  some  such  auditors  as 
Christ  had  (Luke  xx,  20,  and  Mark  xiii.  13),  and  for  the  frequent 
reports  of  such  as  are  mentioned,  Ps.  xxxv.  11,1  had  not  written 

* Reliquiae  Baxterianae,  part  i.,  p.  120.  He  published  the  sermon  in  the  close 
of  the  year  1662,  in  his  work  entitled  “ The  Divine  Life,”  which,  besides  that  ser- 
mon, enlarged  under  the  title  “ Conversing  with  God  in  Solitude,”  contains  two 
other  treatises:  the  first,  “Of  the  knowledge  of  God,”  from  the  text  John  xvii.  3; 
and  the  second,  “ Of  Walking  with  God,”  from  the  text  Gen.  v.  24.  To  this  work 
is  prefixed  a dedicatory  epistle,  addressed  to  the  countess. 

t Baxter’s  Works,  vol.  ii.,  p.  761.  ♦ 


370 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


down  all  that  I delivered,  and  so  had  beeii  incapable  of  so  easily 
answering  your  desires.  -But  it  was  you  that  was  not  content  to 
hear  them,  but  have  invited  them  to  recite  their  message  more 
publicly ; as  if  that  were  like  to  be  valued  and  effectual  upon 
common  hearts,  which,  through  your  strength  of  charity  and  holy 
appetite j is  so  with  yours.”* 

About  this  time,  the  countess  was  visited  with  severe  bodily 
affliction  ; on  learning  which,  Baxter,  subsequently  to  his  writing 
the  ^bove  dedication,  added  a postscript,”  dated  November  1,1661, 
giving  expression  to  his  sympathy  ; reminding  her  that  she  had  not 
to  do  with  an  enemy,  but  a Father ; and  subscribing  himself  her 
“ brother  and  companion  in  tribulation,  and  in  the  kingdom  and 
patience  of  Jesus  Christ.” 

She  recovered  from  this  illness  ; but,  in  the  following  year, 
she  lost  her  eldest  son,  Charles,  second  earl  of  Balcarres,  a very 
promising  boy  of  about  ten  or  twelve  years  of  age,  who  died  at 
Balcarres  on  the  15th  of  October,  1662,t  of  a singular  disease — 
a stone  being  found  in  his  heart,  of  great  magnitude  ! J He  was 
buried  in  the  church  of  Balcarres  on  the  21st  of  that  month,  “ in 
the  night-season.” II  The  countess  sent  the  stone  taken  from  his 
heart  to  Lord  Lauderdale,  with  a view  to  medical  inspection,  ac- 
companied with  a letter.  “ I have  sent  ypur  lordship,”  she  says, 
“ with  my  Lord  St.  Andrews,^  a poor  pledge  for  so  rich  a jewel ; 
this  is  all  I have  now  for  my  dear  child,  my  little  saint,  I may 
rather  say,  who  is  now,  I hope,  a star  of  the  first  magnitude.  O 
my  sweet  child ! how  distressed,  how  sorrowful  has  he  left  me, 
with  an  afflicted  family ! . . . . Were  it  not  too  tedious,  I think  I 
could  hava  written,  though  not.  so  learnedly,  yet  more  fully,  and 
that  which  your  lordship  and  physicians  (that,  I think,  will  be 
astonished  with  the  bigness  of  the  stone,  how  his  little  heart 
could  contain  it)  would  have  made  use  of.  My  lord,  pray  let  me 

^ Baxter’s  Works,  vol.  ii.,  p.  761.  ^ 

t The  countess  had  returned  to  Balcarres  in  May  preceding.  “In  May,  1662, 
viz.,  the  sixth  day,  the  said  lady  returned  to  Balcarres,  her  two  sons  having  come 
some  months  before.” — Lamont’.^  Diary,  p.  123. 

t Reliquite  Baxterianae,  part  i.,  p.  121.  “ When  he  was  opened,”  says  Wodrow, 
“ there  was  a stone  or  stony  substance  found  in  his  heart,  and  that  about  two  inches 
long,  which  Sir  Robert  Murray  presented  to  either  Gresham’  college  or  some  other 
public  collection  of  curiosities.  He  was  an  excellent  youth,  of  great  parts  and  piety.” 
— (Analecta,  vol.  i , p.  356.)  Wodrow,  in  the  same  place,  says  that  he  ‘ died  at 
London,”  which  is  a mistake.  He  also  asserts  that  “ Baxter,  in  one  of  his  books, 
which  he  dedicates  to  his  [the  child’s]  mother,  says,  ‘ Though  he  died  of  a stone  in 
his  heart,  ^et  he  had  not  a heart  of  stone  !*  ” He  evidently  quotes  from  memory — 
the  words  printed  in  italics  not  being  used  by  Baxter,  though  he  plainly  refers  to 
the  piety  of  the  boy. 

II  Lament’s  Diary,  p.  156.  § Sharp,  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews. 


COUNTESS  OF  BALCARRES. 


371 


know  what  physicians  say  of  it,  and  if  there  could  have  been 
help  for  it;  and  whether  they  think  he  has  had  it  from  his  con- 
ception, or  bijLt  lately  grown.”* 

Shortly  after  the  death  of  this  child,  Baxter,  on  hearing  of  the 
countess’s  bereavement,  addressed  to  her  a consolatory  letter, 
dated  December  24,  1662.  This  forms  the  dedicatory  epistle 
prefixed  to  his  treatise  entitled  “ The  Diyine  Life,”  to  which 
reference  has  already  been  made.  It  is  chiefly  employed  in 
suggesting  such  consolatory  considerations  as  might  tend  to  mit- 
igate-her  grief -under  this  affliction;  and  a portion  of  it  maybe 
quoted.,  both  because  it  illustrates  the  train  of  reflection  suggested 
to  her  mind  on  this  occasion,  and  because  it  is  well  adapted  to 
be  useful  to  Christian  parents,  when  tried,  in  the  course  of  Divine 
providence,  with  the  death  of  their  children.  “ Madam,”  says 
he,  ‘‘in  hope  of  the  fuller  pardon  of  my  delay,  I now  present 
you  with  two  other  treatises,  besides  the  sermon  (enlarged)  which, 
at  your  desire,  I preached  at  your  departure  hence.  I knew  of 
many  and  great  afflictions  which  you  had  undergone,  in  the  re- 
moval of  your  dearest  friends,  which  made  this  subject  seem  so 
suitable  and  seasonable  to  you  at  that  time  ; but  I knew  not  that 
God  was  about  to  make  so  great  an  addition  to  your  trials  in  the 
same  kind,  by  taking  to  himself  the  principal  branch  of  your 
noble  family  (by  a rare  disease,  the  emblem  of  the  mortal  malady 
now  reigning).  I hope  this  loss  also  shall  promote  your  gain, 
by  keeping  you  nearer  to  your  heavenly  Lord,  who  is  so  jealous 
of  your  affections,  and  resolved  to  have  them  entirely  to  himself. 
And  then  you  will  still  find  that  you  are  not  alone,  nor  deprived 
of  your  dearest  or  most  necessary  friend,  while  the  Father,  the 
Son,  the  sanctifying  and  comforting  Spirit,  is  with  you.  And  it 
should  not  be  hard  to  reconcile  us  to  the  disposals  of  so  sure  a 
friend.  Nothing  but  good  can  come  from  God  ; however  the 
bland  may  miscall  it,  who  know  no  good  or  evil  but  what  is  meas- 
ured by  the  private  standard  of  their  selfish  interests,  and  that  as 
judged  of  by  sense.  Eternal  love,  efigaged  by  covenant  to  make 
us  happy,  will  do  nothing  but  what  we  shall  find  at  last  will 
terminate  in  that  blessed  end.  He  envied  you  not  your  son,  as 
too  good  for  you,  or  too  great  a mercy,  who  hath  given  you  his 
own  Son,  and  with  him  the  mercy  of  eternal  life.  Corporal  suf- 
ferings, with  spiritual  blessings,  are  the  ordinary  lot  of  believers 
here  on  earth  ; as  corporal  prosperity,  with  spiritual  calamity,  is 
the  lot  of  the  ungodly.  And,  I beseech  you,  consider  that  God 
knoweth  better  than  you  or  I,  what  an  ocean  your  son  was  ready 
Letters  of  Lady  Margaret  Burnet  to  the  Duke  of  Lauderdale,  p.  92. 


372  THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 

to  launch  out  into,  and  how  tempestuous  and  terrible  it  might 
have  proved  ; and  whether  the  wx)rld,  that  he  is  saved  from,  would 
have  afforded  him  more  of  safety  or  seduction,  of  comfort  or  ca 
lamity — whether  the  protraction  of  the'  life  of  your  nobl^  husband, 
to  have  seen  our  sins,  and  their  effects  and  consequents,  would 
have  afforded  him  greater  joy  or  sorrow.  Undoubtedly,  as  God 
h^d  a better  title  to  your  husband,  and  children,  and  friends,  than 
you  had,  so  it  is  much  better  to  be  with  him  than  to  be  with  you, 
or  with  the  best  or  greatest  upon  earth.  The  heavenly  inhabi- 
tants fear  not  our  fears,  and  feel  not  our  afflictions.  They  are 
past  our  dangers,  and  out  of  the  reach  of  all  our  enemies,  and 
delivered  from  our  pains  and  cares,  and  have  the  full  possession 
of  all  those  mercies  which  we  pray  and  labor  for.  Can  you 
think  your  children  and  friends,  that  are  with  Christ,  are  not  safer 
and  better  than  those  that  yet  remain  with  you  ? Do  you  think 
that  earth  is  better  than  heaven  for  yourself?  I take  it  for  granted 
you  can  not  think  so,  and  will  not  say  so.  And  if  it  be  worse 
for  you,  it  is  worse  for  them.  The  providence  which,  by  hast- 
ening their  glorification,  doth  promote  your  sanctification,  which 
helpeth  them  to  the  end,  and  helpeth  you  in  the  way,  must  needs 
be  good  to  them  and  you,  however  it  appear  to  flesh  and  unbelief. 
O madam,  when  our  Lord  hath  showed  us  (as  he  will  shortly 
do)  what  a state  it  is  to  which  he  bringeth  the  spirits  of  the  just, 
and  how  he  doth  there  entertain  and  use  them,  we  shall  then  be 
more  competent  judges  of  all  those  acts  of  providence  to  which 
we  are  now  so  hardly  reconciled ! Then  we  shall  censure  our 
censurings  of  these  works  of  God,  and  be  offended  with  our 
offences  at  them  ; and  call  ourselves  blind,  unthankful  sinners, 
for  calling  them  so  bad  as  we  did  in  our  misjudging  unbelief  and 
passion.  We  shall  not  wish  ourselves  or  friends  again  on  earth 
among  temptations  and  pains,  and  among  uncharitable  men, 
malicious  enemies,  deceitful  flatterers,  and  untrusty  friends ! 
When  we  see  that  face  which  we  long  to  see,  and  know  the 
things  which  we  long  to  feel,  and  are  full  of  the  joys  which  now 
we  can  scarce  attain  a taste  of,  and  have  reached  the  end  which 
now  we  seek,  and  for  which  we  suffer,  we  shall  no  more  take  it 
for  a judgment  to  be  taken  from  ungodly  men,  and  from  a world 
of  sin,  and  fear,  and  sorrow ; nor  shall  we  envy  the  wicked,  nor 
even  desire  to  be  partakers  of  their -pleasures.  Till  then,  let  us 
congratulate  our  departed  friends  on  the  felicity  which  they  have 
attained,  and  which  we  desire ; and  let  us  rejoice  with  them  that 
rejoice  with  Christ ; and  let  us  prefer  the  least  believing  thought 
of  the  everlasting  joys,  before  all  the  defiled,  transitory  pleasures 


COUNTESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


373 


of  the  deluded,  dreaming,  miserable  world.  And  let  us  prefer 
such  converse  as  we  can  here  attain  with  God  in  Christ,  and 
with  the  heavenly  society,  before  all  the  pomp  and  friendship  of 
the  world.” 

The  countess  continued  to  reside  for  several  years  at  Balcarres, 
watching  with  maternal  care  over  the  education  of  her  only  re- 
maining son,  Colin,  who  succeeded  his  brother  as  third  earl  of 
Balcarres,  and  of  her  two  daughters.  Lady  Sophia  and  Lady 
Henrietta.  After  remaining  in  a state  of  widowhood  for  upward 
of  ten  years,  she  was  secondly  married,  on  the  28th  of  January, 
1670,  to  Archibald,  ninth  earl  of  Argyll,*  who  suffered  martyrdom 
in  1685,  and  whom  she  survived  for  above  twenty  years.  This 
marriage  had  the  effect  of  lessening,  in  some  measure,  Argyll’s 
political  power,  by  alienating  from  him  the  duke  of  Lauderdale, 
whose  lady’s  niece  was  his  first  wife.  Lauderdale,  Tweeddale, 
and  Argyll,  had  formerly  been  united  in  politics  ; but  previous  to 
this  marriage,  a difference  had  arisen  between  Tweeddale  and 
Argyll.  Lauderdale,  however,  continued  to  retain  his  former 
kindness  for  Argyll,  till  rumors  were  afloat  that  Argyll  intended 
to  marry  the  countess  of  Balcarres,  when  Tweeddale  succeeded 
in  engaging  Lauderdale  in  his  quarrel,  by  persuading  him  that 
the  young  earl  .'of  Balcarres,  their  cousin  and  pupil,  would  be 
ruined  by  the  match.  Tweeddale  prevailed  upon  Lauderdale  to 
desire  Argyll  to  leave  off  the  contemplated  marriage  ; but  Argyll, 
scorning  to  do  so  to  please  Tweeddale,  the  refusal  inflamed 
Laudei^dale, whose  friendship  for  Argyll,  after  that,  soon  declined.! 

For  nearly  eleven  years  after  the  second  marriagp  of  the  sub- 
ject of  our  notice,  whom  we  must  now  call  the  countess  of  Argyll, 
her  domestic  happiness  was  undisturbed  by  any  great  domestic 
trial ; and  she  resided  sometimes  at  Inverary,  sometimes  at  Ed- 
inburgh, and  sometimes  at  Stirling,  where  the  earl  had  a house. 
When  at  Inverary,  the  principal  place  of  her  residence,  she  sat 
under  the  ministry  of  Mr.  Patrick  Campbell,  who,  for  noncon- 
formity, had  been  ejected,  after  the  restoration,  from  that  parish, 
of  the  highland  congregation' of  which  he  was  minister,  but  who 
resumed  his  labors  there  in-  1669,  under  the  first  indulgence, 
which  was  granted  that  year.J  When  at  Edinburgh  and  at 
Stirling,  and  when  occasionally  sojourning  in  other  places,  she 

^ Argyll  was  a widower.  His  first  wife  was  Lady  Mary  Stuart,  eldest  daughter 
of  James,  fifth  earl  of  Murray.  She  died  in  May,  1668. 

t Sir  George  Mackenzie's  Memoirs  of  the  Affairs  of  Scotland,  pp.  179-181. 

t Wodrow's  History,  vol.  i.,  p.  328  ; vol.  ii.,  p.  133. 

32 


374 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


attended  the  sermons  of  the  ejected  ministers,  both  in  private 
houses  and  more  publicly.* 

Her  two  daughters,  Lady  Sophia  and  Lady  Henrietta,  in  whom 
she  found  more  comfort  than  in  her  daughter  Lady  Anne,  ‘‘though 
widely  different  in  character,  the  one  being  as  gentle  and  retiring 
as  the  other  was  energetic  and  enterprising,  were  united  in  one 
faith,  one  love  to  their  Savior,  their  mother,  and  each  other.” 
Like-minded  with  their  mother  in  regard  to  the  persecuted  pres- 
byterian  church,  they  preferred  the  sermons  of  the  proscribed 
ministers  to  those  of  the  hireling  curates.  Of  the  gentle  and 
retiring  Lady  Henrietta,  it  is  unnecessary  here  particularly  to 
speak,  as  she  will  form  the  subject  of  the  subsequent  sketch. 
“ Solitude  and  retirement,  in  which  she  could  commune  with  her 
own  heart  and  be  still,  had  ever  a peculiar  charm  for  her.  Lady 
Sophia,  on  the  contrary,  was  a woman  remarkable' for  the  bright- 
est faculties,  cheerful,  and  witty,  and  endowed  with  that  presence 
of  mind,  in  the  hour  of  need,  which  is  justly  denominated  hero- 
ism.”! By  her  sprightliness  and  humor,  she  diffused  an  agree- 
able hilarity  over  the  society  in  which  she  mingled;  and  her 
jesting  powers  she  sometimes  exercised  at  the  expense  of  the 
unprincipled  persecutors  of  her  day,  for  whom  she  entertained  a 
just  contempt.  The  following  anecdote — relating  to  a visit  she 
paid  to  Adam  Blackadder  (son  of  the  famous  John  Blackadder), 
then  only  an  apprentice  boy  to  a merchant  in  Stirling,  when,  about 
the  close  of  the  year  1674,  he  was  imprisoned  in  the  tolbooth  of 
that  town  for  refusing  to  sign  the  bond  in  reference  to  conventi- 
cles, called  “ the  black  bond,”  and  for  being  at  conventicles — well 
illustrates  her  principles  and  character,  though  an  instance  only 
of  sportive  pleasantry,  in  which  she  indulged  in  the  free  and 
unrestrained  exuberance  of  her  youthful  spirits — for  she  was, 
probably,  at  that  time,  not  more  than  eighteen  years  of  age. 
“ While  I was  in  prison,”  says  Adam,  “ the  earl  of  Argyll’s  two 
daughters-in-law.  Lady  Sophia  and  Lady  Henrietta,  and  Lady 
Jean,  his  own  daughter,  did  me  the  honor,  and  came  to  see  me, 
where,  I remember,  Lady  Sophia  stood  up  upon  a bench,  and 
arraigned  before  her  the  provost  of  Stirling ; then  sentenced  and 
cojidemned  him  to  be  hanged,  for  keeping  me  in  prison : which 
highly  enraged  the  poor  fool  provost, j:  though  it  was  but  a harm- 

Diary  of  her  Daughter,  Lady  Henrietta,  Wodrow  MSS.,  in  Advocates'  Libra- 
ry, vol.  xxxi.,  8vo,  No.  8. 

t Lord  Lindsay's  Lives  of  the  Lindsays,  vol.  ii.,  p.  144.^ 

t The  provost,  according  to  Adam’s  account,  was  “ a violent  persecutor  and  ig- 
norant wretch."  When,  on  being  apprehended  early  in  the  morning  by  two  mes- 
sengers, Adam  was  brought  to  the  provost,  the  first  words  the  provost  (putting  on 


COUNTESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


375 


less  frolic.  It  seems  he  complained  to  the  council  of  it,  and  the 
good  earl  was -like  to  be  brought  to  much  trouble  about  it.”* 
When  resident  in  Fife,  Lady  Sophia  went  to  hear  the  sermons 
of  Mr.  John  Blackadder  and  others,  who  preached  very  frequently 
there,  both  in  the  fields  and  in  private  houses.  In  Blackadder’s 
Memoirs,  we  are  informed  that,  on  Babbath,  the  11th  of  January, 
1674,  when  only  about  seventeen  years  of  age,  she  came  to  hear 
that  venerable  minister  preach  at  the  house  of  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton, laird  of  Kink  ell,  a man  of  eminent  piety,  liberality,  and 
courage,  whose  house  was  a shelter  to  many  of  the  persecuted 
ministers  in  their  wanderings,  and  in  which,  though  it  was  within 
a mile  of  St.  Andrews,  the  seat  of  Archbishop  Sharp,  they  often 
preached  to  great  numbers,  none  being  excluded  who  came  to 
hear.  She  was,  however,  prevented  from  hearing  sermon  on 
that  day,  by  one  of  those  interruptions  which  conventicles  at  that 
time  so  frequently  met  with.  The  militia  of  St.  Andrews,  hurried 
out  by  the  wife  of  Archbishop  Sharp,  a woman  of  a similar  spirit 
with  himself,  came  to  Kinkell,  with  muskets,  lighted  matches, 
and  pikes,  under  the  command  of  one  lieutenant  Doig,  with  above 
a hundred  of  the  rabble,  and  many  of  the  disaffected  students, 
gentlemen,  and  some  noblemen’s  sons,  and  drew  up  before  Kinkell- 
house  gate,  at  some  distance.  They  did  not,  however,  interrupt 
Blackadder,  who  was  delivering  a lecture  from  Psalm  ii.,  to  a 
numerous  auditory  ; the  long  gallery  and  two  chambers  being  full, 
and  also  a multitude  in  the  close.  But  some  of  the  ill-disposed, 
having,  after  the  singing  of  the  psalm  at  the  close  of  the  lecture, 
got  into  Mr.  Hamilton’s  stable,  and  having  taken  away  his  horse, 
and  the  horses  of  some  others,  Mr.  Hamilton,  who  had  been 
standing  without  the  gate,  and  looking  on,  observing  this,  struck 
with  a cane  at  the  fellow  who  had  taken  his  horse  ; upon  which, 
some  of  the  disaffected  students  from  behind  his  back  took  hold 
of  the  cane,  pulling  it  out  of  his  hand,  which  occasioned  his  fall- 
ing to  the  ground.  This  was  followed  by  an  altercation  between 
the  friends  of  Mr,  Hamilton  and  the  militia ; but  no  serious  harm 
was  sustained  by  any  of  the  parties.  At  this  time,  many  who 
were  proceeding  to  the  meeting  turned  back,  on  hearing  the 
alarm,  among  whom  were  Lady  Sophia  Lindsay  and  some  com- 
pany with  her,  who  were  coming  down  the  brae  above  the  house 
of  Kinkell.  An  old  man,  flying  from  the  meeting,  called  out  to 
them  to  stay ; and,  on  their  inquiring  what  was  the  matter,  he 

his  breeches)  spoke  to  him  were,  “ Is  not  this  bra’  wark,  sirr,  that  wi  maun  be  trou- 
bled with  the  like  of  you?”  Adam  answered,  “You  have  got  a bra’  prize,  my 
lord,  that  has  clacht  a poor  prentice.” — Blackadder’s  Memoirs,  pp.  301, 302.  ^ Ibid. 


376 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


cried,  in  great  terror,  “ A massacre,  a great  massacre,  yonder, 
for  I saw  some  of  the  best” — (meaning  Mr.  Hamilton) — “ fall  ere  I 
came  away,  and  they  were  stripping  the  women.”  This  so  af- 
fected them,  that  they  went  back  to  a landwart  man’s  house. 
Meanwhile,  the  lieutenant,  with  the  militia  and  the  rabble, 
marched  back  to  St.  Andrews  ; after  which  the  people  again 
convened ; and  the  gates  being  shut,  and  a watch  set  on  the  bat- 
tlement to  observe  the  motions  of  the  militia,  they  heard,  without 
interruption,  Blackadder  preach  a very  moving  sermon  on  these 
pathetic  words  in  Jeremiah,  xxxi.  18,  “I  have  surely  heard 
Ephraim  bemoaning  himself  thus  ; Thou  hast  chastised  me,  and 
I was  chastised,  as  a bullock  unaccustomed  to  the  yoke  : turn 
thou  me,  and  I shall  be  turned ; for  thou  art  the  Lord  my  God.” 
But  Lady  Sophia,  and  those  with  her,  were  not  present  at  the 
sermon.  Not  knowing  that  the  militia  had  left  Kinkell,  they 
sent  a boy  to  ascertain  the  state  of  matters.  The  boy,  on  coming 
to  Kinkell-house,  was  admitted  within  the  gate,  and  allowed  to 
hear  with  others  in  the  close,  but  not  suffered  to  go  away  till  the 
sermon  was  ended.  This  made  Lady  Sophia  and  her  company 
conclude  that  all  was  not  well,  and  they  remained  where  they 
were,  expecting  to  hear  distressing  news.  After  sermon,  the 
boy  returned ; and,  on  being  asked  what  detained  him,  he  said 
he  had  been  hearing  a preaching,  where  all  the  folk  were  weep- 
ing ; which  yet  alarmed  them  more,  till  he  told  them  that  no 
injury  had  been  done  to  any  one.  Upon  this,  ‘‘  Lady  Sophia, 
with  several  in  her  company,  came  and  stayed  in  Kinkell-house 
that  night  with  the  laird  and  the  minister,  with  whom  she  then 
made  good  jest  of  the  pitiful  alarm  she  had  got.”* 

That  the  countess  of  Argyll  exerted  a beneficial  influence  in 
promoting,  in  the  earl,  both  a sense  of  piety  and  the  love  of  lib- 
erty, is  undoubted.  During  the  first  eleven  years  of  their  union, 
already  referred  to,  as  well  as  during  several  previous  years,  he 
was  connected,  it  is  true,  with  the  persecuting  government  of 
Charles  II.,  and  complied  with  it,  to  an  extent  which  was  un- 
worthy the  son  of  the  proto-martyr  of  the  Solemn  League  and  Cov- 
enant, and  of  so  eminent  a saint  as  was  his  mother.  But,  while 
this  admitted — and  it  occasioned  him  afterward  deep  remorse, 
drawing  from  him  free  acknowledgments  and  deep  contrition  on 
the  scaffold — it  is,  at  the  same  time,  only  justice  to  state,  that  he 
rather  passively  yielded  to  the  persecuting  measures  pursued  by 
the  majority  of  the  government  than  gave  them  his  cordial  ap- 
probation, or  actively  carried  them  into  effect.  He  sometimes 
* Blackadder’s  Memoirs,  MS.  copy ; see  also  printed  edition,  pp.  160-163. 


COUNTESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


377 


shielded  the  presbyterian  ministers  from  persecution.  Owing  to 
his  protection,  Argyllshire  suffered  less  for  nonconformity  than 
many  other  counties  of  Scotland.*  Toward  the  close  of  his  ca- 
reer, the  principles  of  religion  and  civil  freedom,  which  had  been 
instilled  into  him  in  early  life,  asserted  their  claims,  elevating  his 
patriotism  above  personal  considerations.  And  these  redeeming 
traits  of  his  character  were  owing,  in  no  small  degree,  to  the  in- 
fluence exerted  on  his  mind,  by  the  benevolent  sympathy  and 
favor  for  the  persecuted  presbyterians  which  distinguished  his 
lady,t  and  her  pious  public-spirited  daughters,  by  her  first  hus- 
band, Lady  Sophia  and  Lady  Henrietta,  for  both  of  whom  he  en- 
tertained a high  esteem,  as  well  as  a strong  and  tender  affection. 

During  the  persecution,  many  excellent  women,  as  we  have 
already  seen  in  the  Introduction,  even  when  they  did  not  suffer 
by  any  proceedings  of  the  government  instituted  directly  against 
themselves,  yet  suffered  greatly  through  the  unjust  and  illegal 
proceedings  of  the  government  against  their  husbands.  About 
the  close  of  the  year  1681,  the  countess  began  to  experience  this 
kind  of  trial.  After  the  parliament  had  enacted  that  all  officers 
in  church  and  state  should  take  the  test — an  oath  which,  as  Wod- 
row  well  observes,  “ is  a medley  of  popery,  prelacy,  Erastianism, 
and  self-contradiction,”:}: — Argyll,  on  being  called  to  take  it,  No- 
vember 3j  1681,  as  a privy  councillor  and  one  of  the  commission- 
ers of  the  treasury,  though  he  had  in  his  place  in  parliament  op- 
posed its  imposition,  swore  it  with  this  explanation,  which  he  sub- 
scribed : I take  it  in  as  far  as  it  is  consistent  with  itself,  and  with 
the  protestant  religion ; and  I declare,  that  I mean  not  to  bind  up 
myself,  in  my  station,  and  in  a lawful  way,  not  to  wish  or  endeavor 
any  alteration  which  I think  to  the  advantage  of  church  or  state, 
not  repugnant  to  the  protestant  religion  and  my  loyalty,  and  this 
I understand  as  a part  of  my  oath.”  For  taking  it  with  this  ex- 
planation, he  was  imprisoned  in  the  castle  of  Edinburgh,  on  the 
9th  of  November,  prosecuted  before  the  justiciary  court,  and,  by 
the  unanimous  verdict  of  a jury  of  his  peers,  was  found  guilty 

* Letter  of  Mr.  James  Boece,  minister  of  Campbelltown,  after  the  revolution,  to 
Wodrow,  among  Letters  to  Wodrow,  vol.  xi , 4to.,  No.  190,  MSS.  in  Advocates' 
Library. 

t See  Appendix,  No.  XI. 

t The  parliament  passed  their  act  concerning  the  test,  on  the  31st  of  August, 
1681.  In  taking  it,  the  swearer,  among  other  things,  owned  the  ecclesiastical  su- 
premacy of  the  monarch  in  its  fullest  extent ; condemned  as  unlawful,  all  resistance 
to  the  king,  under  any-pretext,  or  in  any  circumstances  whatsoever  ; and  renounced 
the  obligation  of  the  National  Covenant,  and  of  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant ; 
while,  at  the  same  time,  with  flagrant  inconsistency,  he  professed  his  adherence  to  the 
Scotch  Confession  of  Faith,  of  1567,  which  asserts  that  Christ  is  the  only  head  of 
the  church. — Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  295,  297. 


378 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


of  high  treason,  leasing-making,*  and  leasing-telling,  but  was 
acquitted  of  perjury  by  a plurality  of  votes. j The  privy  coun- 
cil, upon  this  verdict  being  given  in,  sent  a letter  to  the  king, 
informing  him  of  what  had  been  done,  and  desiring  permission 
to  give  orders  to  the  justiciary  court  to  pronounce  sentence  upon 
Argyll,  in  conformity  with  the  verdict ; it  being  the  design  of  the 
duke  of  York,  the  prime  agent  in  all  this,  to  bring  him  to  the  scaf- 
fold, that  the  protestant  party  might  be  deprived  of  a head,  and  to 
annex  his  jurisdiction  to  the  crown,  and  to  parcel  out  his  lands.:}: 
The  countess  was  now  greatly  alarmed  for  his  safety,  as  indeed 
there  was  too  much  cause  of  alarm  ; and  she  would,  in  all  proba- 
bility, have  at  this  time  been  subjected  to  the  trial  which  befell 
her  in  1685,  when  he  was  beheaded  at  the  market-cross  of  Ed- 
inburgh, had  not  her  daughter  by  her  first  husband.  Lady  Sophia, 
been  the  means  of  enabling  him  to  escape  from  the  castle. 

Influenced  by  sympathy  with  her  mother,  as  well  as  by  affec- 
tion to  the  earl,  and  probably  also  impelled  by  the  tender  passion 
of  love — for  she  was  supposed  to  be,  at  this  time,  affianced  to 
the  third  son||  of  the  earl,  by  his  first  wife,  to  whom  she  was  af- 
terward married — Lady  Sophia  undertook  to  effect  his  escape  ; 
and  effected  it,  with  singular  dexterity  and  success,  about  eight 
o’clock  in  the  evening  of  Tuesday,  the  20th  of  December,  1681.^ 

* Leasing-making  was  a crime — the  creature  of  an  act  of  parliament — which 
consisted  in  misrepresenting  the  actions  of  the  king  to  any  of  his  subjects  ; or,  vice 
versa,  those  of  the  subjects  to  the  king.  It  inferred  capital  punishment. 

t Fountainhall’s  Decisions,  vol.  i,  pp.  160,  161,  166.  Drummond’s  Memoirs  of  Sir 
Ewen  Cameron  of  Locheill,  pp.  206,  207.  - . 

t Fountainhall’s  Decisions,  vol.  i.,  p.  166.  Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  337. 

11  This  was  the  honorable  Charles  Campbell.  The  date  of  the  marriage  is  uncer- 
tain ; and  none  of  their  descendants  in  the  male  line  exist. — Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol. 
i.,  p.  105. 

§ On  the  19th,  the  day  preceding,  believing  that  his  life  was  in  danger,  the  earl 
began  to  entertain  thoughts  of  attempting  his  escape ; and,  on  the  morning  of  the 
20th,  he  had  some  intention,  though  no  fixed  resolution,  of  attempting  it  that  even- 
ing, but  had  not  then  disclosed  his  intention  to  any  individual.  Learning,  about  ten 
o’clock  in  the  forenoon,  that  the  duke  of  York  had  absolutely  refused  to  suffer  him 
to  see  him  till  his  majesty’s  return : and  learning  further,  about  noon,  that  some 
troops  and  a regiment  of  foot  were  come  to  town,  and  that  the  next  day  he  w'as  to 
be  brought  down  from  the  castle  to  the  common  jail,  from  which  criminals  were  or- 
dinarily carried  to  execution,  he  determined  to  attempt  his  escape  that  very  night ; 
and,  about  five ‘o’clock  in  the  evening,  he  gave  directions  in  reference  to  it,  not  in- 
tending to  make  the  attempt  till  near  ten  o’clock.  About  seven  o’clock  in  the  even- 
ing, a friend,  who.  came  up  from  the  city,  dissuaded  him  from  his  purpose,  alleging 
the  impossibility  of  its  succeeding,  new  orders  having  been  privately  given  for  more 
effectually  securing  him,  the.  castle  guards  being  doubled,  and  none  suffered  to  go 
out  without  showing  their  faces,  which  several  ladies  had  already  been  required  to 
do.  But  this  information,  by  increasing  his  apprehension  of  his  danger,  only  strength- 
ened his  determination  ; and,  in  less  than  an  hour  after,  he  was  enabled,  by  the  aid 
of  his  favorite  step-daughter,  to  carry  it  into  effect.  These  particulars  are  taken 
from  a scarce  folio,  entitled,  The  Case  of  the  Earl  of  Argyll,  ‘ privately  printed  and 
circulated  by  his  friends  after  his  escape,  p.  122. 


COUNTESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


379 


Whether  the  plan  was  of  her  own  cbntrivance,  does  not  appear ; 
but  the  manner  in  which  she  put  it  into  execution,  as  related  to 
Lady  Anne  Lindsay  by  her  fathnr,  Earl  James,  Lady  Sophia’s 
nephew,  is  as  follows  : “ Having  obtained  permission  to  pay  him  a 
visit  of  one  half  hour,  she  contrived  to  bring  as  her  page,  a tall, 
awkward,  country  clown,  with  a fair  wig,  procured  for  the  occa- 
sion ; who  had  apparently  been  engaged  in  a fray,  having  his 
head  tied  up.  On  entering,  she  made  them  immediately  change 
clothes.  They  did  so  and,  on  the  expiration  of  the  half  hour, 
she,  in  a flood  of  tears,  bade  farewell  to  her  supposed  father,  and 
walked  out  of  the  prison  with  the  most  perfect  dignity,  and  with 
a slow  pace,”*  led  by  the  gentleman  who  had  accompanied  her 
to  the  castle,  Argyll  following  as  her  page,  holding  up  her  train. 
In  passing  the  guards,  Argyll  was  in  no  small  danger  of  being 
discovered,  the  suspicions  of  some  of  them  being  awakened ; 
but,  with  singular  tact,  she  succeeded,  by  an  ingenious  device, 
suggested  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  in  allaying  their  suspicions. 
“ The  sentinel  at  the  drawbridge,”  continues  the  same  writer, 
“ a sly  highlander,  eyed  her  father  hard,  but  her  presence  of 
mind  did  not  desert  her;  she  twitched  her  train  of  embroidery, 
carried  in  those  days  by  the  page,  out  of  his  hand,  and  dropping 
it  in  the  mud,  ‘ Varlet,’  cried  she^  in  a fury,  dashing  it  across  his 
face,  ‘ take  that — and  that  too,’  adding  a box  on  the  ear,  ‘ for 
knowing  no  better  how  to  carry  your  lady’s  garment.’  Her  ill 
treatment  of  him,  and  the  dirt  with  which  she  had  besmeared  his 
face,  so  confounded  the  sentinel,  that  he  let  them  pass  the  draw- 
bridge unquestioned.”!  Having  passed  all  the  guards,  she  en- 
tered her  coach,  which  was  waiting  for  her  at  the  outer  gate  ; 
while  Argyll,  agreeably  to  his  assumed  character,  stepped  on  the 
hinder  part  of  the  coach  ; and,  on  its  coming  opposite  the  Weigh 
house,  he  slipped  off,  and  shifted  for  himself. 

The  ability  and  success  with  which  Lady  Sophia  effected  the 
escape  of  Argyll,  lifted  off  a load  from  the  mind  of  her  mother ; 
who  had  now  the  comfort  of  reflecting  that  though  he  was  still 

Memoirs  of  Lady  Anne  Barnard,  quoted  in  Lord  Lindsay’s  Lives  of  the  Lind- 
says, vol  ii.,  p.  147. 

t See  also  Fountainh all’s  decisions,  vol.  i.,  p.  167  ; Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iii.,  p. 
337  ; Law’s  Memorials,  p 210.  In  “ The  Case  of  the  Earl  of  Argyll,”  it  is  said 
(p.  122),  that  “within  half  an  hour  after  [that  is,  after  a friend  had  visited  him  at  sev- 
en o’clock  in  the  evening],  by  God’s  blessing,  he  got  safe  out,  questioned  pretty  warm- 
ly by  the  first  sentry,  but  not  at  all  by  the  main  guard,  and  then,  after  the  great  gate 
was  opened,  and  the  lower  guard  drawn  out  double,  to  make  a lane  for  his  com- 
pany [that  is,  Lady  Sophia,  in  whose  train  he  followed],  one  of  the  guards,  who 
opened  the  gate,  took  him  by  the  arm,  and  viewed  him.  But,  it  pleased  God,  he 
was  not  discerned.” 


380 


THE  LADIES  OF  IHE  COVENANT. 


exposed  to  the  risk  of  apprehension  before  he  reached  Holland, 
that  sanctuary  of  safety,  he  was  in  the  meantime  out  of  the  hands 
of  his  enemies  ; and  while  her  daughter  became,  from  this  heroic 
action,  more  endeared  to  her  than  ever,  she  did  not  forget  that 
her  first  and  highest  acknowledgments  were  due  to  God,  who,  in 
his  merciful  providence,  had  crowned  this  enterprise  with  suc- 
cess.* Very  different  were  the  feelings  of  the  government,  who, 
on  being  informed  of  Argyll’s  escape,  and  of  the  manner  in  which 
it  was  brought  about,  were  so  enraged,  that  it  was  even  proposed, 
in  the  privy  council,  publicly  to  whip  the  young  lady  through  the 
streets  of  Edinburgh.  “ So  gallant,”  says  Aikman,  “ were  the 
Scottish  cavaliers!”!  No  punishment  was,  however,  inflicted 
upon  her  at  present though  she  was  afterward  imprisoned  sev- 
eral weeks  for  the  noble  deed. 

After  his  escape  from  the  castle,  Argyll,  according  to  a previ- 
ous arrangement,  met  with  Mr.  Pringle  of  Torwoodlee,  who  con- 
ducted him  in  safety  to  Northumberland,  to  the  house  of  Mr. 
William  Veitch ; who,  again,  conducted  him  safely  to  London, 
where,  and  in  the  neighborhood,  he  was  concealed  and  hospita- 
bly entertained  by  Mrs.  Smith,  the  wife  of  a wealthy  confectioner, 
and  a woman  of  eminent  piety,  wisdom,  liberality,  and  patriotism, 
till  he  found  the  means  of  getting  safely  over  to  Holland.  It  was 
when  at  this  time  sheltered  in  London,  that  he  wrote  a .poetical 
address  to  Lady  Sophia,  his  fair  deliverer.  It  is  dated  London, 
April  18,  1682  ; and  though  it  has  no  peculiar  merit  as  a poetical 
composition,  a part  of  it  may  be  given,  as  interesting  from  the 
circumstances  in  which  it  was  written.  It  commences  thus  : — 

“ Daughter,  as  dear  as  dearest  child  can  be, 

Lady  Sophia,  ever  dear  to  me ; 

Our  guardian  angels,  doubtless,  did  conspire 
To  make  you  gain,  and  me  to  give  this  hire, 

Not  to  requite — what  I can  never  do — 

But  somewhat  suitable  from  me  to  you. 

T am  not  rich — guineas  tempt  not  your  eyes — 

Yet  here  are  ‘ angels’  you  will  not  despise. 

You  came  an  angel  in  the  case  to  me, 

Expressly  sent  to  guide  and  set  me  free. 

The  great  gate  opened  of  its  own  accord  :|| 

That  word  came  in  my  mind — I praise  the  Lord. 

He  that  restrained  of  old  the  Shechemites,§ 

I hope  will  now  the  cruel  Benjamites ; 

Priests  that  do  want  the  pity  of  laymen — 

Judges  and  counsellors  that  cry,  ‘ Amen !’ 

Diary  of  Lady  Henrietta  Campbell.  t Aikman’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  591. 

t Fountainhall’s  Decisions,  vol.  i , i).  167.  j{  On  margin,  Acts  xii.  10. 

} Genesis  xxxv.  5. 


COUNTESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


381 


When  I was  out,  I knew  not  where  I went; 

I cried  to  God,  and  he  new  angels  sent. 

If  ye  desire  what  passed  since  to  me, 

Read  through  the  book  of  Psalms,  and  think  on  me.” 

What  follows  are  some  of  the  concluding  lines : — 

“ There 's  nothing  meant  but  pride  of  tyranny — 

A dainty  way  to  uniformity  ! 

The  triple  crown,  and  this  new,  glorious  head, 

May  make  brave  work  when  you  and  I are  dead. 

All  is  but  cheat  till  holiness  get  place, 

Till  gospel  laws  be  rules,  and  God  give  grace. 

God’s  secret  laws  are  not  stilP  understood — 

The  wrath  of  men  may  work  the  church’s  good ; 

What  we  may  see  is  for  from  me  to  say, 

But  God  doeth  what  he  will  in  his  own  way. 

Peace  is  not  promised  here,  yet  we  may  see 
Religion  flourish  to  a great  degree, 

And  Zion  freed  from  human  tyranny. 

This  may  be  here,  but  certainly  above 
There  shall  be  always  peace  and  always  love. 

0 happy  place!  where  we  shall  always  see 
The  blessed  sight,  perfect  felicity  I 

A place  beyond  our  Essachosant  for. 

Where  there  is  always  peace,  and  never  war. 

Let  you  and  I meet  at  the  throne  of  grace 
By  prayer  now,  till  we  see  face  to  face  ; 

Since  as  your  page  I could  no  longer  stay, 

Pray  God  reward  you,  and  himself  you  guide, 

And  all  good  people  wish,  to  you  provide. 

“ The  noble  friends  I found  here,  greet  you  well ; 

How  much  they  honor  you,  it ’s  hard  to  tell ; 

Or  how  well  I am  used — to  say  it  all, 

Miglit  make  you  think  that  I were  in  Whitehall  1 

1 eat,  I drink,  I lie,  I lodge,  sae  weel, 

It  were  a folly  to  attempt  to  tell ; 

So  kindly  cared  for,  furnished,  attended. 

Were  ye  to  chalk  it  down,  you  could  not  mend  it.”l: 

Though  the  escape  of  the  earl  greatly  relieved  the  mind  of  the 
countess,  the  unjust  and  illegal  proceedings  of  the  government 
against  him  in  his  absence  proved  to  her  a new  cause  of  distress. 
The  privy  council  having  communicated  the  intelligence  of  his 
escape  to  the  king,  and  at  the  same  time  desired  to  be  informed 

* Still,  that  is,  “ yet.” 

t At  Inverary  “ there  are  several  avenues  of  great  beauty,  one  of  the  principal  of 
which  is  a long  avenue  which  leads  frorn  the  castle  to  Essachosan.  . . . There 

are  also  many  trees  worthy  of  notice,  on  account  of  their  great  size  and  beauty. 
There  is  a lime  near  Essachosan,  called  the  marriage-tree,  on  account  of  the  union 
of  the  branches,  which  is  often  visited  by  strangers.  From  a bole  of  considerable 
size,  it  throws  out  two  principal  branches,  a little  above  the  ground,  which  are  firmly 
knit  together  at  about  twenty  feet  above  the  point  of  separation,  by  a bar  or  branch, 
formed  of  a process  issuing  from  one,  or  probably  from  both.”  This  extract,  from 
the  Statistical  Account  of  luverary,  Argyllshire,  in  the  New  Statistical  Account  of 
Scotland,  will  enable  the  reader  to  form  an  idea  of  the  earl’s  allusion  in  the  text. 
t Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  ix.,  8vo,  No.  23. 


382 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


what  measures  they  should  take  in  consequence — the  king,  in 
reply,  allows  sentence  of  forfeiture  of  life  and  fortune  to  be  pro- 
nounced upon  him,  as  a traitor,  but  not  to  be  executed  till  his 
pleasure  should  be  further  made  known.  On  the  receipt  of  the 
king’s  letter,  which  was  on  the  22d  of  December,  the  second  day 
after  Argyll’s  escape,  the  council  gave  orders  to  the  justiciary 
court  to  pronounce  upon  him,  in  his  absence,  the  above  sentence. 
Learning  the  determination  of  the  council,  the  countess  presented 
a petition  to  the  lords  of  justiciary,  humbly  supplicating  that  no 
sentence  might  be  passed  upon  him  in  his  absence,  and  support- 
ing the  prayer  by  many  strong  reasons,  founded  both  on  justice 
and  on  the  law  of  Scotland  ; but  the  justiciary  lords,  being  now 
mere  tools  in  the  hands  of  the  privy  council,  disregarded  her  pe- 
tition, not  even  deigning  to  answer  it,  and  pronounced  sentence 
upon  him  in  terms  of  the  act  of  the  privy  council.* 

During  the  time  that  the  earl  was  in  Holland,  the  countess,  it 
would  appear,  remained  in  Scotland,  residing  chiefly  at  Stirling. 
She,  however,  continued  to  correspond  with  him  by  letter ; and 
Major  Holmes,  whom  Bishop  Sprat  describes  as  Argyll’s  “ long 
dependant  and  friend,  a man  active  in  the  times  of  Cromwell,  and 
always  disaffected  to  his  majesty’s  government,”  was  employed 
by  Argyll  in  conveying  his  letters  to  her,  as  well  as  to  others  of 
his  correspondents,  and  in  conveying  her  letters  to  him.f 

At  length,  about  the  close  of  the  year  1683,  she  was  put  to 
trouble,  in  consequence  of  some  of  the  earl’s  letters,  and  of  a let- 
ter which  she  had  written  to  him,  falling  info  the  hands  of  the 
government.  The  Rye-House  Plot  had  been  discovered  in  June 
that  year  ; and  the  government  having  received  intelligence  that 
Argyll,  who  was  still  in  Holland,  had  corresponded  with  the  con- 
spirators, Major  Holmes,  to  whom  all  Argyll’s  letters  were  ad- 
dressed, was  taken  into  custody ; and  his  house  being  searched, 
there  were  found  in  it  several  of  Argyll’s  letters,  written  in 
ciphers,  and  a letter  of  the  countess  to  Argyll,  also  written  in 
ciphers,  together  with  the  key  of  the  correspondence. | All  these 
documents  were  immediately  sent  down  to  Edinburgh,  to  the 
privy  council ; who,  upon  receiving  them,  summoned  the  countess 
to  appear  at  their  bar.  This  subject,  having  come  under  their 
consideration  at  their  meeting  of  the  18th  of  December,  1683,  the 
council  remitted  to  the  lords  chancellor,  treasurer,  and  duke  of 
Hamilton,  to  speak  with  the  Lady  Argyll  anent  the  deciphering 

* Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iii , p.  340. 

t Bishop  Sprat’s  “ True  Account  of  the  Horrid  Conspiracy,”  &c..  p.  82. 

t Ibid. ; compared  with  Acts  of  Privy  Council  afterward  quoted. 


COUNTESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


383 


of  her  letter  to  the  late  earl  oUArgyll,  her  husband,  and  to  report 
to  the  council.  These  members,  having  gone  aside  and  spoken 
with  her,  reported  that  she  was  unwilling  to  satisfy  them  in  that 
matter  upon  oath.  The  council  then  remitted  to  the  earl  of  Perth, 
the  lords  register  and  advocate,  to  tell  her  of  her  danger  if  she 
refused  to  do  so  ; and  these  lords  having  also  spoken  with  her, 
and  reported  that  she  was  willing  to  depone,  the  council  remitted 
to  the  earl  of  Perth  to  examine  her  upon  oath,  and  communicate 
the  result  of  her  examination  to  the  lords  chancellor  and  treasurer 
in  the  afternoon.”* 

She  was  summoned  again  to  appear  before  the  council,  at 
their  meeting  on  the  forenoon  of  the  20th  of  December ; and, 
having  made  her  appearance,  she  was  solemnly  sworn  concern- 
ing the  letter  above-mentioned,  and  made  her  depositions  there- 
upon. The  earls  of  Perth  and  Tweeddale,  the  president  of  the 
court  of  session,  and  the  lord-advocate,  were  appointed  to  exam- 
ine her  more  particularly.  Her  depositions  have  not  been  regis- 
tered in  the  records  of  the  proceedings  of  the  privy  council,  but 
the  substance  of  them  has  been  preserved  by  Fountainhall,  an 
industrious  chronicler  of  the  events  of  those  times.  She  ac- 
knowledged that  she  had  corresponded  with  Argyll,  which,  in 
strict  law,  was  criminal  for  her  to  do,  though  his  wife,  he  being 
a condemned  traitor.  She  also  owned,  that  the  letter  above  re- 
ferred to  was  written  by  herself  to  him,  but  that  she  could  not 
now  deciper  it,  having,  about  four  months  ago,  burnt  the  key, 
judging,  upon  the  discovery  of  the  English  plot,  such  a mode  of 
correspondence  dangerous,  and  liable  to  suspicion.  She  further 
deponed,  that  ever  since  his  affair  with  the  McLeans,  about  the 
Isle  of  Mull  (the  M‘ Leans  having  laid  wait  for  his  letters,  to 
know  his  design),  it  was  the  earl’s  practice  to  write  to  her  and 
his  friends,  even  of  his  private  affairs,  in  ciphers,  but  that,  as 
has  been  said  before,  she  had  burnt  the  key,  and  could  not  now 
read  or  explain  the  ciphers  ; but  that  all  the  letters  she  received 
from  him  contained  nothing  concerning  the  plot,  and  related  only 
to  his  own  private  affairs,  and  to  his  friends  ; “ and  it  would  be 
a very  cruel  law  indeed,”  she  added,  were  a wife  compelled  to 
detect,  and  reveal  such  matters.”  Unsatisfied  with  her  answers, 
which,  contrary  to  their  wishes,  discovered  nothing  to  criminate 
the  earl,  the  committee  pronounced  them  disingenuous  ; and,  ac- 
cordingly, they  sent  in  all  haste  for  Mr.  George  Campbell,  in  the 
Canongate,  and  one  Gray,  of  Crechie,  in  Angus,  who  were 
skilled  in  the  art  of  reading  letters  written  in  ciphers.  Such 
* Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council. 


384 


THE  LA  DIES  OF  THE  COVENANT., 


were  the  proceedings  of  the  committee  of  council.  The  council 
itself,  at  the  same  diet  (December  the  20th),  “ continued  the  ad- 
vising the  oath  until  their  next  meeting,  and  the  earl  of  Balcar- 
res  was  desired  that  the  lady  [his  mother]  might  be  in  readiness 
at  any  time  when  she  should  thereafter  be  called  for.”* 

The  countess  was  again  brought  before  the  committee  of  the 
privy  council  on  the  1st  of  January,  1684.  By  this  time,  Mr. 
Gray,  of  Crechie,  and  Mr.  George  Campbell,  had  succeeded  in 
deciphering  her  letter  to  the  earl,t  with  the  exception  of  some 
capital  letters  with  figures  placed  above  them  on  the  right  hand ; 
as  which  stood  for  the  relatives  he^  Jiis,  him^  the  import  of 
which  they  did  not  discover,  until  explained  by  the  countess  her- 
self. It  does  not  appear,  that  at  this  meeting  they  read  her  own 
letter  to  her,  or  made  her  fully  aware  of  the  extent  to  which  they 
had  succeeded  in  deciphering  it;  but,  ignorant  that  was  put 
for  the  relative  pronoun,  and  ignorant  of  the  use  made  of  another 
hieroglyphic  they  supposed,  and  hinted  to  her,  that,  by  these 
signs  which  occurred  in  her  letter,  her  son,  the  earl  of  Balcarres, 
was  intended.  Finding  that  her  son  was  thus  in  danger  of  being 
implicated,  she  said  that  she  now  remembered  that  was  only 
a relative  particle  in  the  key  between  her  husband  and  her,  and 
so  meant  Lord  Maitland,]:  who  was  immediately  mentioned  be- 
fore. As  this  involved  that  nobleman  in  the  charge  of  corre- 
sponding with,  and  receiving  letters  from  Argyll,  a traitor,  the 
committee  immediately  sent  for  the  earl  of  Lauderdale,  Lord 
Maitland’s  father,  and  sent  with  him  Captain  Graham,  and  Sir 
William  Paterson,  their  clerk,  to  seal  up  all  the  papers,  trunks, 
and  cabinets  of  Lord  Maitland,  who  was  then  in  London,  till 
they  should  be  examined. |1 

At  the  meeting  of  the  privy  council  on  the  following  day  (Jan- 
uary 2),  the  committee  gave  a verbal  report  of  what  they  had 
done.  They  state,  “ upon  information  given  to  them,  that  a gen- 

* Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council,  compared  with  FountainhalFs  Decisions, 
vol.  i.,  p.  251. 

t We  have  not  met  with  the  countess’s  letter,  but  the  following  is  the  alphabet- 
ical key  which  opened  it : — 

abcdefgh  i klmnopqrs  t uwxyz& 

1st 10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34 

2d 40  41  42  43  44  45  46  47  48  49  50  51  52  53  54  55  56  57  58  59  60  61  62  63  64 

3d 70  71  72  73  74  75  76  77  78  79  80  81  82  83  84  85  86  87  88  89  90  91  92  93  94 

Carstairs’  State  Papers,  p.  106.  As  a specimen  of  this  mode  of  correspondence  be- 
tween her  and  the  earl,  see  a short  letter  which  he  wrote  her  in  the  middle  alpha- 
bet, in  Appendix,  No.  XII. 

X Richard,  Lord  Maitland,  eldest  son  of  Charles,  third  earl  of  Lauderdale  (for- 
merly Lord  Hatton,  brother  to  the  famous  duke  of  Lauderdale),  was  married  to 
Lady  Anne  Campbell,  second  daughter  of  the  earl  of  Argyll. 

II  Fountainhall’s  Decisions,  vol.  i.,  p.  256 ; compared  with  Register  of  Acts  of 
Privy  Council. 


COUNTESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


385 


tleman  in  Mearns,  named  — — Gray,  of  Crechie,  by  rules  of  art 
[is]  able  to  unfold  ciphering  ; by  their  order,  the  letter  in  ciphers 
found  at  Major  Holmes’  house  at  London,  and  the  key,  sent  down 
with  some  other  papers — which  letter  is  by  the  countess  of  Ar- 
gyll acknowledged  to  be  a letter  from  her  to  her  husband — were 
delivered  to  him,  who,  having  considered  thereof  [deciphered 
the  letter],  except  some  letters  placed,  as  it  seems,  for  monosyl- 
lables, or  names  of  persons,  whereby  the  import  of  the  whole 
letter  is  fully  discovered.”  They  further  state,  that  in  conse- 
quence of  the  explanation  which  the  countess  had  given  of  cer- 
tain letters  with  figures  placed  above  them,  being  put  for  mono- 
syllables, or  relative  particles,  whereby  Lord  Maitland  seemed 
implicated  in,  the  crime  of  corresponding  with  Argyll,  a con- 
demned traitor,  ‘‘  they  have  yesternight  given  order  to  Sir  Wil- 
liam Paterson,  clerk  to  the  council,  and  Captain  Patrick  Gra- 
ham, to  go  to  the  earl  of  Lauderdale’s  house,  and  to  secure  all 
the  papers  belonging  to  the  Lord  Maitland,  and  to  examine  all 
the  servants  upon  oath,  as  to  the  Lord  Maitland’s  cabinets,  boxes, 
and  coffers,  where  any  of  his  writes  were,  and  that  none  of  them 
were  abstracted ; and  to  seal  and  secure  the  same,  and  the  doors 
and  windows,  that  none  might  enter  the  room  where  they  were.” 
They  further  inform  the  council,  “ that  Sir  William  Paterson  and 
Captain  Graham  had,  conform  to  the  said  order,  gone  to  the  earl 
of  Lauderdale’s  house,  and  called  for  the  keys  of  the  rooms 
where  any  of  the  Lord  Maitland’s  papers  were,  or  suspected  to 
be,  and  examined  the  haill  servants  of  the  house,  as  to  their 
knowledge  of  any  other  papers  belonging  to  him,  or  if  the  same 
were  abstracted ; and  that  thereafter  they  had  sealed  the  boxes 
and  coffers  wherein  they  were  informed  to  be,  and  the  doors  and 
windows  of  the  chamber  where  they  left  them,  and  produced  the 
keys  thereof  before  the  committee  ; as,  also,  that,  by  their  order, 
they  had  gone  to  the  countess  of  Argyll,  and  given  her  an  account 
of  the  deciphering  of  the  said  letter,  and  what  they  had  observed 
• therein,  that  she  might  not  be  surprised,  but  might  recollect  her- 
self for  clearing  her  oath.”  In  fine,  they  state  that  they  had 
“ found  it  necessary  to  write  a letter  to  the  secretaries,  with  the 
said  deciphered  letter,  for  his  majesty’s  information.”  ‘‘  And 
the  said  deciphered  letter,  with  the  committee’s  order  to  Sir 
William  Paterson  and  Captain  Graham,  and  the  account  of  the 
obedience  given  by  them  thereto,  being  read,  and  considered  ^ 
the  lords  of  council,  they  approved  thereof,  as  necessary  and 
good  service  done  to  his  majesty.”"*^ 

^ Register  of  Acts  of  Privy  Council. 

33 


386 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


Such  was  the  stir  created  by  a letter  which  the  countess 
wrote  to  her  husband.  No  criminating  disclosures  of  any  mo- 
ment, it  would  appear,  were  made  against  Lord  Maitland,  if  we 
may  judge  by  the  silence  preseiwed  on  the  subject  in  the  records 
of  the  subsequent  proceedings  of  the  privy  council.  The  coun- 
tess, also,  as  it  would  seem,  was  no  further  annoyed  in  this  mat- 
ter, it  being  manifest,  that  whatever  might  be  discovered  of  Ar- 
gyll’s intrigues  with  those  concerned  in  the  Rye-House  Plot,  it 
was  to  be  discovered  from  his  correspondence  with  others,  and 
not  with  her ; and,  accordingly,  the  government  specially  ad- 
dressed itself,  and  ultimately  with  success,  to  the  task  of  unravel- 
ling the  letters  of  Argyll  to  other  parties,  found  in  the  possession 
of  Major  Holmes. 

In  the  summer  of  1685,  being  informed  of  the  sickness  of  her 
daughter.  Lady  Henrietta  (then  the  wife  of  Sir  Duncan  Camp- 
bell, of  Auchinbreck),  who  was  residing  at  the  castle  of  Carnas- 
sary,  in  the  parish  of  Kilmartin,  Argyllshire,  the  countess  went 
to  visit  her,  and,  upon  her  recovery,  brought  her  along  with  her 
other  daughter.  Lady  Sophia,  who  had  been  residing  some 
weeks  with  her  sister,  at  the  castle  of  Carnassary,  to  Stirling,  to 
live  with  her  there  for  some  time.*  Lady  Henrietta  had  a strong 
affection  for  her  mother,  and  bears  a high  testimony  to  her  Chris- 
tian worth.  “ Her  tender  care  and  affection,”  says  she,  “ have 
been  greatly  evidenced  to  all  hers,  and  particularly  to  myself, 
which  I desire  to  have  a deeper  sense  of  than  can  be  expressed, 
as  my  bounden  duty ; and  I can  not  but  reckon  it  among  the 
greatest  earthly  blessings  to  have  been  so  trysted,  having  early 
lost  my  dear  father,  eminent  in  his  day,  when  insensible  of  the 
stroke,  and  whose  memory  has  much  of  a lasting  savoriness 
among  those  of  worth  that  knew  him ; and  when  so  young  not 
two  years  old,  and  deprived  of  his  fatherly  instruction  it  may 
justly  be  ground  of  acknowledgment  that  the  blessed  Father  of 
the  fatherless,  on  whose  care  I was  left,  did  preserve  so  tender- 
hearted a mother,  whose  worth  and  exemplariness,  in  many  re- 
spects maybe  witness  against  us,  if  undutiful  or  unthankful  to  the 
great  Giver  of  our  mercies.”! 

Hitherto,  the  countess  had  suffered  by  the  forfeiture  of  the  es- 
tates of  the  earl,  and  by  his  long  banishment.  Now,  she  was  to 
suffer  by  being  personally  imprisoned,  and  still  more  severely  by 
tragical  fate  of  her  husband.  The  earl,  who,  for  some  years, 
had  been  living  on  the  continent,  and  who  had,  on  the  death  of 
Charles  IL,  resolved  upon  his  unfortunate  expedition  of  rescuing 
**  Diary  of  Lady  Henrietta  Campbell.  t Ibid. 


COUNTESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


387 


his  country  from  popery  and  slavery,  set  sail  for  Scotland  on  the 
1st  of  May,  1685,  with  three  ships,  and  a considerable  number 
of  arms,  but  with  few  men,  not  exceeding  three  hundred  in  all. 
In  three  days  he  reached  Orkney,  and  touched  there — a great 
error ; for  thus  his  motions  were  made  known  to  the  bishop  of 
Orkney,  who  immediately  communicated  the  intelligence  to  the 
privy  council.  Two  of  Argyll’s  friends,  Mr.  William  Spence, 
his  secretary,  and  Dr.  William  Blackadder,  son  of  Mr.  John 
Blackadder,  having  gone  ashore  at  Kirkwall,  were  also  seized 
by  order  of  the  bishop,  who  refused  to  surrender  them  ; upon 
which  Argyll  seized  and  carried  off  five  or  six  of  the  Orkney 
people  as  prisoners.  From  Orkney  he  steered  his  course,  by 
the  inside  of  the  Western  Isles,  for  Islay;  thence  he  sailed  to 
Mull ; thence  to  Kintyre  ; and,  on  arriving  at  Tarbet,  published 
his  declaration  to  his  clan ; but,  being  joined  by  fewer  in  the 
highlands  than  he  had  anticipated,  and  meeting  with  various 
disasters,  he  at  last  found  it  necessary,  in  order  to  secure  his 
personal  safety,  to  disguise  himself  under  the  dress  of  a country- 
man. Riding  in  disguise  on  horseback,  he  was  attacked,  on  the 
17th  of  June,  by  two  of  the  militia,  who  were  also  on  horseback, 
at  the  water  of  Inchinan.  They  laid  hold  on  him,  one  on  each 
side,  all  the  three  being  on  horseback  ; and  the  earl  grappling 
with  them  both,  one  of  them  fell  with  him  to  the  ground.  His 
lordship  got  up,  and  kept  both  at  hay  by  presenting  his  pocket- 
pistols  ; and  he  would  have  made  his  escape,  had  not  some  come 
to  the  aid  of  the  two  militia.  A weaver  there  being  awakened  bv 
the  noise,  came  out  with  a rusty  broad-sword,  and  struck  Argyll 
on  the  head  ; which  so  stunned  him  that  he  fell  into  the  water, 
and  in  the  fall  cried  out,  “ Ah ! unfortunate  Argyll.”  On  know- 
ing who  he  was,  they  seemed  not  a little  grieved;  and  would 
have  let  him  go,  had  not  the  terror  of  being  punished  by  the  gov- 
ernment prevented  them.  He  was  brought  in  prisoner  to  Glas- 
gow, and  thence  to  Edinburgh,  on  the  20th  of  June,  1685,  under 
a strong  guard.  He  lingered  so  long  by  the  ‘way  that  it  was 
near  ten  o’clock  at  night  before  he  arrived  at  the  Watergate.  On 
his  arrival  there,  he  was  met  by  Captain  Graham’s  guards,  who 
were  appointed  to  conduct  him  to  the  castle  ; and  his  hands 
being  tied  behind  his  back  by  the  hangman,  he  walked  on  foot, 
bareheaded,  to  the  castle,  the  hangman  going  before  him.  But, 
from  the  lateness  of  the  evening,  few  were  spectators  of  his  ig- 
nominious treatment. 

Though  the  countess  of  Argyll  had  no  share  whatever  in  this 
insurrection,  yet  the  privy  council,  on  receiving  intelligence  that 


388 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


tlie  earl  liad  touched  at  Orkney,  immediately  issued  orders  that 
she  should  be  apprehended,  and  imprisoned  in  the  castle  of  Stir- 
ling— that  tovvui  being,  at  that  time,  the  place  of  her  residence. 
After  being  confined  there  a short  time,  she  was  conducted,  on  a 
sabbath  morning.  May  the  10th,  to  Edinburgh,  and  on  Monday 
secured  a prisoner  in  the  castle,  where  she  was  confined  for  five 
or  six  weeks.*  This  step  was  altogether  unexpected  on  her 
part ; nor  is  it  easy  to  see  what  important  object  the  government 
could  gain  by  making  her  a prisoner.  She  was  in  no  danger  of 
taking  up  arms  and  joining  the  standard  of  the  earl,  like  his  son 
James,  and  his  brother.  Lord  Neil ; who,  with  many  of  the  most 
substantial  of  the  name  of  Campbell,  that  they  might  be  prevented 
from  joining  him,  were  seized  and  made  close  prisoners.  But 
arbitrary  and  despotic  governments  have  often  wreaked  their  ven- 
geance on  the  innocent  and  helpless  relatives  of  such  as  have 
risen  up  against  their  tyranny  and  oppression  ; and,  in  the  pres- 
ent instance,  they  had  at  least  the  plea  that  the  countess,  by  cor- 
responding with  the  earl  after  he  had  been  denounced  a traitor, 
had  rendered  herself  obnoxious  to  punishment.  They,  besides, 
seem  to  have  intended  this  as  a retaliation  upon  the  earl  for  his 
taking  five  or  six  of  the  Orkney  people  prisoners.  “ His  lady,” 
says  Fountainhall,  “ and  my  Lord  Neil,  his  brother,  and  his  son 
James,  were  secured  prisoners  in  Edinburgh ; and  they  were 
threatened,  that,  as  he  used  the  Orkney  prisoners,  so  should  they 
be  used.”t 

The  countess’s  daughter.  Lady  Sophia,  was,  at  the  same  time, 
imprisoned  in  the  tolbooth  of  Edinburgh,  for  an  old  offence  (for  her 
concern  in  Argyll’s  escape  from  the  castle  in  1681),  for  which, 
though  threatened  at  the  time,  she  had  never  before  been  pun- 
ished. Lady  Sophia  continued  prisoner  during  the  same  period 
as  her  mother.^:  It  was  fortunate  for  her,  unprincipled  and  ty- 

Diary  of  Lady  Henrietta  Campbell;  FountainliaH’s  Decisions,  vol.  i.,  p.  362; 
an  l his  Historical  Observes,  p.  189. 

t Fountainhall’s  Historical  Observes,  p.  167. 

t Meanwhile,  her  husband,  the  Honorable  Charles  Campbell,  narrowly  escaped 
an  ignominious  death.  He  had  accompanied  his  father  from  Holland,  on  his  expe- 
dition to  Scotland  ; and  being  twice  sent  ashore  on  the  coast  of  Argyllshire — at  one 
time  to  bring  intelligence  of  the  disposition  of  the  gentlemen  and  common  people, 
and  the  second  time  to  levy  men — he  fell  sick  of  a fever  when  sent  ashore  this  second 
time,  and  was  taken  by  the  marquis  of  Atholl,  who,  by  virtue  of  his  justiciary  power, 
resolved  to  hang  him  at  his  father’s  gate  at  Inverary.  “ But,”  says  Fountainhall, 
“ the  privy  council,  by  the  intercession  of  sundry  ladies  (for  it  was  said  he  was  mar- 
ried to  Lady  Sophia  Lindsay,  Balcarres’s  sister,  who  conveyed  his  father,  in  Decem- 
ber, 1681,  out  of  Edinburgh  castle),  stopped  it  (July  16, 1685),  and  sent  for  him  to  be 
brought  prisoner  to  Edinburgh.”  On  the  21st  of  August,  he  was  forfeited,  and  ban- 
ished for  life.  In  1689,  his  forfeiture  was  rescinded. — FountainhaH’s  Decisions,  vol. 
i,  p.  367 ; Douglas’s  Peerage,  voh  i.,  p.  105.- 


COUNTESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


389 


rannical  as  were  the  men  who  then  ruled  in  Scotland,  that  none 
of  them  equalled  in  brutal,  or  rather  diabolical  cruelty,  Jeffreys, 
the  chief-justice  of  England  (a  man  after  James  VIL’s  own  heart), 
who  presided  at  the  western  assizes  after  the  suppression  of 
Monmouth’s  insurrection ; else  she  would  assuredly  have  been 
condemned,  without  mercy,  to  atone  for  her  heroic  deed  by  being 
burnt  alive  ; or,  if  any  favor  had  been  granted  her,  it  would  have 
been  only  the  poor  favor  of  being  first  strangled,  and  then  thrown 
into  the  fire  and  consumed  to  ashes  ! Such  was  the  fate  to  which, 
by  the  sentence  of  that  infamous  man,  one  Mrs.  Gaunt  was  sub- 
jected, at  Tyburn,  for  assisting  one  of  Monmouth’s  insurgents  in 
making  his  escape,  and  for  giving  him  money ; which  was  just 
a case  similar  to  that  of  the  share  which  Lady  Sophia  Lindsay 
had  in  the  escape  of  Argyll  from  the  castle  of  Edinburgh  * 

On  learning,  after  she  had  been  imprisoned  ten  days  in  the 
castle  of  Edinburgh,  that  the  earl  had  been  apprehended,  and 
was  also  a prisoner  in  the  castle,  the  countess  was  in  great 
affliction.  Her  fears  respecting  his  fate  caused  her  more  dis- 
tress than  her  own  personal  sufferings ; for  she  was  fully  per- 
suaded, and  upon  too  good  grounds,  that  he  would  now  fall  a vic- 
tim to  the  rage  of  his  enemies.  In  these  circumstances,  she  was 
extremely  anxious  to  be  admitted  to  an  interview  with  him ; but 
so  cruel  was  the  privy  council,  that  this  was  not  granted  till  a 
week  after  his  imprisonment  in  the  castle,  and  three  days  before 
his  execution.  The  cruelty  of  this  she  deeply  felt,  but  she  sought 
and  found  support  and  comfort  in  God.  Her  daughter,  Lady 
Henrietta,  who,  on  being  informed,  though  incorrectly,  that  her 
own  husband.  Sir  Duncan  Campbell  of  Auchinbreck,  was  appre- 
hended, had  gone  to  Edinburgh  to  learn  his  fate,  says,  concern- 
ing her  mother,  after  learning  for  certain  that  he  had  escaped : 
‘‘  I was  then  more  enabled  to  make  inquiry  after  my  dear  afflicted 
mother,  who  was  harshly  treated,  and  seeing  her  under  so  great 
affliction,  by  the  approaching  suffering  of  such  an  endeared  hus- 
band, and  [that  she]  had  no  access  to  him  till  eight  days  after 
this  fatal  stroke  ; this  did  again  renew  a very  mournful  prospect 
of  matters,  which  at  this  time  had  a very  strange  aspect,  so  that 
if  the  Lord  of  life  had  not  supported,  we  had  sunk  under  the 
trouble.”! 

The  countess  was  admitted  to  see  the  earl,  for  the  first  time, 
on  the  evening  of  Saturday,  the  27th  of  June.  He  was  now 
bound  in  irons — a precaution  taken,  from  the  moment  he  was  im- 

* Fountain]! all’s  Historical  Observes,  p.  222. 

t Diary  of  Lady  Henrietta  Campbell. 

33* 


390 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


prisoned  in  the  castle,  to  prevent  his  making  a second  escape ; 
and  just  before  she  entered,  he  had  received  information  that  a 
letter  had  arrived  that  evening,  from  the  king  to  the  privy  coun- 
cil, ordering  them  to  bring  him  to  condign  punishment  within 
three  days  after  the  letter  came  to  their  hands  ; but,  amid  all  that 
was  distressing  in  the  interview,  it  was  comforting  to  her  to  find 
that  his  mind  was  in  a state  of  calm  submission  to  the  Divine 
will,  and  of  humble  trust  in  God  for  supporting  grace  under  his 
sufferings.*  Instead  of  being  brought  to  a new  trial,  he  was,  on 
the  29th  of  June,  condemned,  by  the  lords  justiciary,  to  be  pub- 
licly beheaded  at  the  cross  of  Edinburgh  on  the  following  day,  in 
pursuance  of  the  sentence  formerly  pronounced  upon  him,  in  his 
absence,  for  high-treason. f 

On  the  forenoon  of  the  day  on  which  he  was  executed,  the 
countess  was  again  admitted  to  see  him  before  he  died  ; and 
Avho,  but  such  as  have  been  placed  in  similar  circumstances,  can 
conceive  the  agonizing  feelings  which  agitated  their  bosoms,  at 
this  their  last  interview  ! Scenes  like  this  are  so  deeply  affect- 
ing, that  even  jailers,  who  have  been  accustomed  to  scenes  of 
suffering,  have  been  unable  to  witness  them  without  being  moved 
to  tears.  There  was,  however,  in  the  present  case,  every  alle- 
viating circumstance  which  Christian  character  and  Christian 
consolation  could  afford.  Though  he  was  soon  to  die,  and  the 
penalty  could  not  be  avoided,  he  had  done  nothing  of  which  she 
had  reason  to  be  ashamed,  or  for  which  he  deserved  death  at  the 
hands  of  men.  Though,  when  admitted  by  the  jailer  into  his 
cell,  she  found  him  loaded  with  chains,  she  found  him  not  abject 
and  crushed  in  spirit  by  remorse,  but  enjoying  the  tranquillity  of 
conscious  innocence,  and  that  peace  of  God  which  the  world  can 
neither  give  nor  take  away  ; and  this  greatly  sustained  and  soothed 
her  mind.  “ The  day  being  appointed  for  his  suffering,”  says 
her  daughter  Lady  Henrietta,  “ she  had  access  to  him,  and  though 
under  deep  distress,  was  encouraged  by  seeing  the  bounty  and 
graciousness  of  the  Lord  to  him,  in  enabling  him,  with  great  cour- 
age and  patience,  to  undergo  what  he  was  to  meet  with,  the  Lord 
helping  him  to  much  fervency  in  supplication,  and  nearness  in 
pouring  out  his  heart  with  enlargedness  of  affection,  contrition, 
and  resignation,  which  did  strangely  fortify  and  embolden  him  to 
maintain  his  integrity  before  his  merciless  enemies  ; and  by  this 
he  was  helped  at  times  to  great  cheerfulness,  and  fortified  un- 
der his  trial,  and  the  testimony  he  was  to  give  of  his  zeal  and 

Wodrow's  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  298. 
t Drummond’s  Memoirs  of  Sir  Ewen  Campbell  of  Locbeill,  p.  216. 


COUNTESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


391 


favor  to  that  righteous  cause  he  was  honored  to  suffer  for.”* 
On  the  morning  of  the  day  on  which  he  was  executed,  “ he 
spoke  freely  of  the  joy  with  which  the  Lord  had  blessed  him  du- 
ring the  time  he  had  been  in  Holland  (that,  as  he  observed,  being 
the  sweetest  time  of  his  life),  and  of  the  mercifulness  of  his  es- 
cape to  that  end ; but  rejoiced  more  in  that  complete  escape  he 
was  to  have  that  day  from  sin  and  sorrow  ; and  yet  in  a little  he 
fell  into  some  damp,”t  ^-nd  found  the  last  interview,  and  espe- 
cially the  final  parting  with  his  countess,  a severe  trial  to  his  for- 
titude ; nor  was  it  a less  severe  trial  to  hers.  They  indeed  felt 
it'to  be  the  greatest  trial  they  had  to  und^go.  ‘‘  In  parting  with 
my  mother,”  says  Lady  Henrietta,  he  was  observed  to  have 
more  concern  than  in  any  circumstance  formerly ; and  it  was  to 
her  a bitter  parting,  to  be  taken  from  him  whom  she  loved  so 
d early. After  their  final  adieu,  and  when  she  was  removed 
from  his  cell,  “ he  recovered  a little  ; and  as  the  time  of  his  death 
drew  near,  which  was  some  hours  after,  the  Lord  was  p)leased 
wonderfully  to  shine  on  him,  to  the  dispelling  of  clouds  and  fears, 
and  to  the  admitting  him  to  a more  clear  and  evident  persuasion 
of  his  blessed  favor,  and  the  certainty  of  his  being  so  soon 
happy.”! 

The  last  memorial  of  the  earl’s  affectionate  remembrance  of 
her,  which  the  countess  received,  was  the  following  letter,  which 
he  wrote  to  her  from  the  “ Laigh  Council-House,”  whither  he 
was  brought  a short  time  before  his  execution.  It  is  brief,  for 
then  his  time  was  short  and  precious  ; and  is  as  follows  : — 

“ Dear  Heart  : As  God  is  of  himself  unchangeable,  so  he 
hath  been  always  good  and  gracious  to  me,  and  no  place  alters 
it ; only  I acknowledge  I am  sometimes  less  capable  of  a due 
sense  of  it ; but  now,  above  all  my  life,  I thank  God  I am  sensi- 

^ Diary  of  Lady  Henrietta  Campbell.  ^ t Ibid. 

X Ibid.  The  final  parting  between  that  illustrious  patriot,  Lord  William  Russell, 
who  was  condemned  to  be  executed  for  the  Rye-House  Plot,  and  his  lady,  who  had 
an  uncommon  affection  for  him,  was,  in  like  manner,  felt  by  them  to  be  the  most 
trying  scene  through  which  they  had  to  pass.  A few  days  before  his  execution, 
when  Lady  Russell  left  his  apartment,  he  observed  that  “ the  parting  with  her  was 
the  greatest  thing  he  had  to  do.  for  he  feared  she  w’ould  hardly  be  able  to  bear  it.^' 
But  both  of  them  were  enabled  on  that  occasion  wonderfully  to  control  their  emo- 
tions. and  to  display  great  magnanimity  of  spirit.  “ With  a deep  and  noble  silence 
— wii'h  a long  and  fixed  look,  in  which  respect  and  affection,  unmingled  with  pas- 
sion, were  expressed” — they  took  their  last  fai*e well  of  each  other;  “he  great  in 
this  last  act  of  his  life,  she  greater.  His  eyes  followed  her  while  she  quitted  the 
room;  and  when  he  lost  sight  of  her,  turning  to  Dr.  Burnet,  who  attended  him  as 
his  chaplain,  he  said,  ‘ The  bitterness  of  death  is  now^  past.'  ” — Sir  John  Dalrymple’s 
Memoirs  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  vol.  i.,  pp.  31,  32. 

11  Diary  of  Lady  Henrietta  Campbell. 


392  THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 

ble  of  his  presence  with  me,  with  great  assurance  of  his  favor, 
through  Jesus  Christ,  and  I doubt  not  it  will  continue  till  I be  in 
glory. 

“ Forgive  me  all  my  faults  ; and  now  comfort  thyself  in  him, 
in  whom  only  true  comfort  is  to  be  found.  The  Lord  be  with 
thee,  bless  thee,  and  comfort  thee,  my  dearest ! Adieu,  my  dear  ! 
Thy  faithful  and  loving  husband,  “ Argyll.”* 

This  letter  had  a very  consoling  effect  upon  the  mind  of  the 
countess.  It  had  been  her  earnest  prayer,  that  God  would  im- 
part to  the  earl  supporting  grace  to  the  last,  and  prepare  him  for 
a happy  eternity.  Her  prayers  were  heard ; and  great  as  was 
her  mental  anguish,  her  heart  was  filled  with  gratitude  to  God, 
who  had  enabled  him  to  display  the  faith  and  the  heroism  of  the 
martyr.  “ The  certainty  of  his  being  so  soon  happy,”  says  her 
daughter.  Lady  Henrietta,  ‘‘  of  which  he  expressed  his  sense,  in 
his  last  letter  to  my  dear  mother,  could  not  but  sweeten  her  l^ft  in 
her  greatest  sorrow,  and  was  ground  of  greatest  thankfulness,  that 
the  Lord  helped  him  to  the  last,  to  carry  with  such  magnanimity, 
resolution,  contentment  of  mind,  and  true  valor,  under  this  dark- 
like providence,  to  endless  blessedness.  And  though  the  loss 
of  so  great  a protestant  was  grief  of  mind  to  all  that  had  any  ten- 
der heart,  and  to  friends,  v/as  a universal,  inexpressible,  break- 
ing-like  dispensation,  yet  in,  so  far  as  he  was  enabled,  under 
cruel  suffering,  to  such  tranquillity,  peace,  and  comfort,  this  was 
to  them  ground  of  praise,  and  an  answer  to  their  prayers.”! 

The  countess’s  two  daughters  by  her  first  husband.  Lady 
Sophia  and  Lady  Henrietta,  also  received  each  of  them  a letter 
from  the  earl.  Both  these  letters  are  without  date,  but  they  were 
probably  written  in  the  “ Laigh  Council-House,”  at  the  same 
time  when  he  wrote  his  last  letter  to  his  countess.  For  his  let- 
ter to  Henrietta,  the  reader  is  referred  to  our  sketch  of  the  life 
of  that  lady.  The  letter  which  Lady  Sophia  received  from  him, 
bears  testimony,  like  that  which  he  wrote  to  her  mother,  to  the 
heavenly  joy  which  filled  his  soul  in  the  near  prospect  of  death. 
It  is  as  follows  : — 

“My  Dear  Lady  Sophia  : What  shall  I say  in  this  great  day 
of  the  Lord,  wherein,  in  the  midst  of  a cloud,  I find  a fair  sun- 
shine. I can  wish  no  more  for  you,  but  that  the  Lord,  may  com- 
fort you,  and  shine  upon  you,  as  he  doth  upon  me,  and  give  you 
that  same  sense  of  his  love  in  staying  in  the  world,  as  I have  in 
going  out  of  it.  Adieu!  “Argyll.” 

* Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  303.  t Diary  of  Lady  Henrietta  Campbell. 


COUNTESS  OF  ARGYLL. 


393 


P.  S.  My  blessing  to  dear  Earl  Balcarres.  The  Lord  touch 
his  heart,  and  incline  him  to  his  fear  !”* 

According  to  his  sentence,  Argyll  was  beheaded  on  the  after- 
noon of  the  30th  of  June.  His  behavior  on  the  scaffold  is  par- 
ticularly narrated  by  Wodrow.  It  has  been  said,  that  he  was 
somewhat  appalled  at  the  sight  of  the  maiden,  and  that  he  there- 
fore caused  bind  the  napkin  upon  his  face,  ere  he  approached  it, 
and  was  then  led  to  it.f  It  is,  however,  admitted  by  all,  that  he 
met  death  with  much  Christian  fortitude.  Among  other  things 
he  said  on  the  scaffold,  ‘‘  I die  not  only  a protestant,  but  with  a 
heart-hatred  of  popery,  prelacy,  and  all  superstition  whatsoever.” 
His  last  words,  which  he  repeated  three  times  as  he  lay  with  his 
head  on  the  maiden,  were,  Lord  Jesus,  receive  me  into  thy 
glory.”  It  is  a remarkable  fact,  that,  as  is  recorded  by  Fountain- 
hall,  after  his  head  had  been  struck  off,  his  body,  by  the  great 
commotion  and  agitation  of  the  animal  and  vital  spirits,  started 
upright  to  his  feet,  till  it  was  held  down,  and  the  blood,  from  the 
jugular  veins  of  the  neck,  sprung  most  briskly,  like  a cascade  or 
jet  of  water .J  ‘‘  Thus  fell,”  adds  the  same  writer,  ‘‘  that  tall 
and  mighty  cedar  in  our  Lebanon,  the  last  of  an  ancient  and  hon- 
orable family.”  II 

In  the  month  of  August,  after  the  execution  of  the  earl,  the 
countess,  accompanied  by  her  daughter,  Lady  Henrietta,  to 
London,  with  the  design  of  assisting  her  in  her  intercessions 
with  the  government,  in  behalf  of  her  husband.  Sir  Duncan  Camp- 
bell, of  Auchinbreck,  who  had  been  involved  in  Argyll’s  insurrec- 
tion, and  had  taken  refuge  in  Holland.  She  remained  in  Lon- 
don with  her  daughter,  in  prosecution  of  this  object,  for  about 
seven  or  eight  months  ; after  which,  all  their  efforts  proving  un- 
successful, she  returned  to  Scotland ; while  her  daughter,  in 
March  or  April,  1686,  embarked  for  Holland,  to  join  her  husband. 
On  her  return  to  Scotland,  she  resided  during  the  summer  of  that 
year  at  Stirling. § 

Of  the  subsequent  history  of  the  countess,  little  is  known. 

Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  303. 

t FountainbaU’s  Historical  Observes,  p.  194.  t Ibid. 

II  The  folio vi'ing  scene,  whicb  occurred  at  the  execution  of  Argyll,  as  described  by 
Fountainball,  may  be  (junted,  as  illustrating  tbe  manners  of  that  period.  “It  was 
reported,”  says  he,  “ when  Argyll’s  corpse  were  carrying  off  the  scaffold,  a woman 
of  the  popish  religion  followed  the  bearers,  with  railing,  and  wished  she  could  wash 
her  hands  in  his  heart  blood-j  some  otlier  women,  hearing  this,  it  did  so  far  provoke 
their  choler,  that  they  seized  on  her,  and  dragged  her  to  a close  foot,  near  the  North 
loch  side,  and  there  beat  her  soundly,  and  tore  her  clothes,  and  robbed  her  of  her 
crucifix  and  beads,” — Historical  Observes,  p.  197. 

Diary  of  Lady  Henrietta  Campbell. 


394 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


We  meet  with  an  allusion  to  her  in  a letter  addressed  by  Sir 
James  Stewart,  lord-advocate  of  Scotland,  to  Mr.  William  Car- 
stairs,  dated  “ Edinburgh,  September  14,  1697.”  The  passage 
relates  to  her  anxiety  about  her  son,  Colin,  third  earl  of  Balcar- 
res,  who  had  become  obnoxious  to  the  government  of  King  Wil- 
liam, in  consequence  of  his  concern  in  the  plot  of  Sir  James 
Montgomery,  of  Skelmorly,  to  restore  King  James.*  ‘‘  I also 
acquainted  you,”  says  the  lord-advocate,  “ how  I was  ordered  to 
prosecute  the  process  of  treason,  remitted  by  the  parliament  1695, 
to  the  justice  court,  which  was  not  my  inclination  at  this  time  ; 
but  now  that  I move  in  it,  it  much  alarms  the  lady  Skelmorly  for 
her  husband’s  memory.  . . . The  countess  of  Argyll  is  also 

much  troubled  for  her  son,  Balcarres  ; she  says  it  will  waken  his 
creditors,  and  mar  her  daughters’  marriages.  I told  her  that  her 
son,  if  he  pleased,  might  now  apply  to  the  king,  at  the  Hague.”! 
Colin  walked  on  foot  to  the  Hague,  and  solicited  the  friendly  of- 
fices of  Carstairs  ; who  told  King  Whlliam  that  a man  he  had 
once  favored!  was  now  in  so  low  a condition,  that  he  had  footed 
it  from  Utrecht  that  morning,  to  desire  him  speak  for  him.  ‘‘  If 
that  be  the  case,”  said  the  generous  William,  ‘‘  let  him  go  home  ; 
he  has  suffered  enough.”  The  earl  “ accordingly  returned  to 
Scotland,”  says  Lord  Lindsay,  “toward  the  end  of  1700,  after 
ten  years’  exile  ; and  his  mother  had  thus  the  happiness  of  once 
more  embracing  him  before  her  death.”||  “ On  his  being  permit- 
ted to  return  from  exile,”  says  the  same  writer,  “she  was  still 
living  at  Stirling ; she  even  survived  in  1706,  but  of  the  precise 
period  of  her  death  I am  ignorant.  Few  lots  in  life  have  been 
so  chequered  as  hers  ; and  few,  doubtless,  ever  laid  down  their 
head  on  the  pillow  of  death  with  more  heartfelt  satisfaction. 
During  a long  and  active  life,  she  had  but  few  gleams  of  unalloyed 
earthly  happiness  ; and  it  was  well  for  her  that  her  hopes  were 
anchored  on  another  and  a better  world,  ‘ where  the  wicked  cease 
from  troubling,  and  the  weary  are  at  rest.’ 

This  plot  was  discovered  in  1690  ; upon  which,  the  earl  of  Balcarres  left  the 
countr^^  He  waited  on  the  abdicated  monarch  at  St.  Germains,  who  received  him 
with  great  affection.  He  published,  in  1714,  a small  work,  entitled,  “ An  Account 
of  the  Affairs  of  Scotland  relating  to  the  Revolution,  1688.’'  On  the  breaking  out 
of  the  rebellion,  in  1715,  he  joined  the  Pretender’s  standard  ; but,  through  the  clem- 
ency of  the  government,  he  escaped  unpunished.  He  died  in  1722,  aged  about  sev- 
enty.— Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  i.,  pp.  169-171. 

t Carstairs’  State  Papers,  p.  343.  t See  Appendix,  No.  XIIT. 

II  Lives  of  the  Lindsays,  vol.  ii.,  p.  190. 

§ Lives  of  the  Lindsays,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  119-155.  For  extracts  from  a very  interest- 
ing and  able  letter  which  the  countess  wrote  to  her  son  Colin,  earl  of  Balcarres,  see 
Appendix,  No.  XIII. 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK. 


395 


HENRIETTA  LINDSAY, 

LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK.’^ 

Henrietta  Lindsay  was  the  third  and  youngest  daughter  of 
Alexander,  first  earl  of  Balcarres,  by  his  wife,  Lady  Anne  Mac- 
kenzie, the  subject  of  the  preceding  sketch.  She  was  born  about 
the  close  of  the  year  1657,  or  early  in  the  year  1658  ; as  appears 
from  a statement  made  in  her  diary,  that  at  the  time  of  her  fa- 
ther’s death,  which  took  place  in  August,  1659,  she  was  not  two 
years  old.f  At  so  early  an  age,  she  could  not  remember  her 
father,  much  less  derive  profit  from  his  instructions  and  example. 
But  in  her  eminently  pious  mother,  she  found  an  affectionate  and 
well-qualified  instructress  in  the  things  of  God ; as  well  as  a 
constant  pattern  of  the  most  attractive  features  of  the  Christian 
character.  Nor  was  this  great  privilege  lost  upon  her.  From 
the  exemplary  piety  of  some  female  servants  in  the  family,  she 
also  derived  much  religious  advantage  in  her  tender  years.  She 
mentions  that  this  was  the  means  of  first  stirring  her  up  to  aim, 
in  some  serious  manner,  at  the  duty  of  prayer,  which,  at  times, 
was  made  sweet  to  her  ; and  from  the  experience  of  her  younger 
days,  she  makes  the  following  very  judicious  and  important  ob- 
servation : “ It  can  not  but  be  recommended,  that  care  ought  to 
be  taken  to  have  well-inclined  and  conscientious  servants,  of  an 
agreeable  temper  about  young  ones.” 

When  only  a little  past  thirteen  years  of  age,  she  made  a pub- 
lic profession  of  Christ  at  the  Lord’s  table,  at  Weems.  In  our 

* The  materials  of  this  sketch,  unless  when  otherwise  indicated  by  the  references 
at  the  foot  of  the  page,  are  taken  from  Lady  Campbelfs  diary,  a copy  of  which  is 
among  the  Wodrow  MSS  , in  the  Advocates’  Library,  vol.  xxxi.,  8vo.,  No.  8.  This 
copy  was  written  out  by  Wodrow  himself,  from  the  original,  which  he  received  from 
Mr.  John  Anderson,  minister  of  Kirkmaiden,  who  received  it  from  Lady  Campbell 
herself.  Mr.  Anderson,  in  a letter  to  Wodrow,  dated  Kirkmaiden,  October  24, 
1721,  says : “ I have  Lady  Henrietta  Campbell’s  diary,  written  with  her  own  hand, 
and  carried  down  to  her  arrival  at  Edinburgh,  anno  1689.  She  was  pleased  to  com- 
pliment me  with  it  the  last  time  I parted  with  her,  having  a double  of  it  for  herself. 
The  whole  of  it  concerns  her  own  exercises,  from  her  early  conversion  and  expe- 
rience of  the  work  of  grace,  to  that  time.  I have  seldom  read  anything  more  edi- 
fying ; and,  therefore,  could  wish  to  see  what  further  accounts  she  has  left  of  her  last 
sickness,  and  could  have  hopes  of  getting  the  same  from  her  son,  Sir  James,  if  I were 
at  his  house.” — Letters  to  Wodrow,  vol.  xv..  No.  78.  And,  in  a letter  to  Wodrow, 
in  January,  1722,  he  says,  in  a postscript,  “Since  I wrote  the  above,  I received 
yours,  dated  January  Ist,  and  shall  some  time  send  you  Lady  Henrietta’s  diary,  or, 
at  least  bring  it  with  me,  about  the  end  of  April,  or  beginning  of  May.  I design  to 
take  two  weeks  about  Glasgow  before  I go  to  the  assembly.” — Ibid.,  vol.  xv.,  No.  81. 

t See  p.^86. 


396 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


day,  a child  of  this  age  is  seldom  admitted  to  so  solemn  an  ordi- 
nance ; but  such  early  admissions  were  by  no  means  rare  in  the 
best  days  of  the  church  of  Scotland.  Henrietta  was,  however, 
far  from  being  satisfied  with  the  manner  in  which  she  made  this, 
her  first  approach,  to  the  'table  of  the  Lord.  She  acknowledges 
that  there  yet  “ remained  in  her  great  ignorance,  and  estranged- 
ness  from  the  life  and  power  of  Christianity,  save  by  faint  wishes, 
which  prompted  her  to  some  formal  going  about  duties,”  and  to 
this  duty  among  others  ; that,  as  she  afterward  discovered,  she 
had  presumed  upon  it  “ from  great  rashness,  and,  no  doubt,  igno- 
rance of  the  hazard  of  such  an  adventure  and  that,  “ therefore, 
no  sensible  benefit  could  be  discovered;  which,  after  some  months, 
was  made  cause  of  dread  and  terror  to  her.”  These  convictions 
of  her  having  profaned  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord’s  supper,  were 
-first  produced  on  her  mind  at  Inverary,  under  the  ministry  of  Mr. 
Patrick  Campbell,  when  in  consequence  of  the  marriage  of  her 
mother  to  the  earl  of  Argyll,  she  was  brought  to  reside  at  the  cas- 
tle of  Inverary,  the  seat  of  that  nobleman.  The  sermons  she 
there  heard  Mr.  Campbell  preach,  had  an  awakening  effect  upon 
her,  which,”  says  she,  writing  after  his  death,  which  took  place 
subsequently  to  the  revolution,  “ will  ever  endear  his  memory  to 
me.”  She  also  records  that,  at  this  time,  a weekly  catechetical 
exercise  in  the  family  of  the  earl  of  Argyll,  conducted  by  Mr. 
Cumming,  a man  “ of  eminent  piety  and  learning,”  was  made 
greatly  useful  to  her,  issuing  in  her  greater  liking  to  spiritual 
concerns.  Brought  by  these  means,  to  a conviction  of  the  dan- 
ger of  her  natural  state,  she  was  led  to  renounce  her  own  righ- 
teousness as  insufficient  to  form  the  ground  of  her  justification 
before  God,  and  to  seek  salvation  only  in  the  finished  work  of 
the  blessed  Mediator.  It,  indeed,  appears  to  have  been  her  own 
impression,  that  it  was  only  now  that  she  became  the  subject  of 
the  regenerating  and  saving  grace  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  Going 
with  the  earl  of  Argyll’s  family  to  Kintyre,  where  they  stayed  a 
month  or  five  weeks,  she  had  “ access  to  her  sweet  and  power- 
ful truths  at  Campbeltown,  under  Mr.  Cameron’s  and  Mr.  Keith’s 
ministry,*  who  were  two  eminent  lights  there.”  During  this 
time,  her  young  heart  was  drawn  forth  in  ardent  love  to  her  Sa- 

” Mr.  John  Cameron  was,  at  the  restoration,  minister  of  Kilfinnan,  from  which  he 
was  ejected  for  nonconformity,  and,  in  1672,  he  was  appointed,  in  the  indulgence 
of  the  privy  council  of  September  that  year,  indulged  minister  of  that  parish.  Prom 
the  statement  in  the  text,  it  would  appear  that  he  had  been  subsequently  appointed 
indulged  minister  of  Campbeltown.  Mr.  Edward  Keith  was,  at  the  restoration, 
minister  of  Lochead,  from  which  he  was  also  ejected  for  nonconformity.  He  was 
appointed,  in  1672,  indulged  minister  of  Campbeltown. — Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  i^ 
p.  328  ; and  vol.  ii.,  p.  204. 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK. 


397 


vior,  and  she  was  much  engaged  in  the  secret  exercises  of  reli- 
gion, in  which  she  found  great  delight. 

After  this  she  Avas  brought,  with  Argyll’s  family,  to  Edinburgh. 
While  residing  in  the  capital,  she  had  an  opportunity  of  hearing 
the  ejected  ministers  preach  in  private  houses  ; and  the  powerful 
impression  which  their  sermons  made  upon  her  own  heart,  as 
well  as  the  blessed  effects  they  produced  upon  many  others  who 
heard  them,  created  in  her  mind  an  esteem  for  these  excellent 
men,  which  she  found  it  impossible  to  feel  for  the  curates,  whose 
ministry  was  attended  with  little  evidence  of  the  presence  and 
power  of  God.  Such  was  the  contemplative  character  of  her 
mind,  that  even  then,  though  only  in  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth 
year  of  her  age,  she  had  reasoned  herself  into  the  impropriety, 
if  not  the  sinfulness,  of  hearing  the  curates  ; not  only  because  of 
the  cold  and  unimpressive  character  of  their  discourses,  but  also, 
because  she  believed  that,  by  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant, 
Britain  was  solemnly  engaged  against  prelacy.  She  thus  writes  : 
“ After  this  Ave  were  brought  to  Edinburgh ; where,  after  several 
months  of  ups  and  downs  as  to  comfort,  there  was  access  unex- 
pectedly to  gospel  ordinances  in  private  families,  that  proved  not 
empty  cisterns  to  me,  but  were  made  as  the  conduit  to  derive 
streams  from  the  fountain  ; for  which,  O to  be  helped  to  praise  ! 
and,  though  a time  of  persecution,  yet  the  Lord  favored  his  peo- 
ple there  with  several  powerful  sermons,  in  these  private  meet- 
ings, which  did  engage,  to  great  esteem  and  affection,  to  these 
his  sent  servants,  who  were  peculiarly  countenanced,  beyond 
what  I could  perceive  among  others  of  a different  persuasion. 
This  was  ar  privilege  Mr.  Gumming  was  instrumental  in  procur- 
ing. Learning  then  to  lay  to  heart  the  misery  our  nation  was 
groaning  under,  by  being  reduced  to  formal,  lifeless  teachers 
that  then  were  in  our  churches,  and  by  the  silencing  our  more 
faithful  ministers,  that  were  removed  to  corners,  it  became,  from 
this  time,  matter  of  bitterness  to  me  to  hear  any  other  than  them  ; 
having  the  deep  impression  of  the  ties  our  nation  was  under  to 
have  abolished  this  woful,  episcopal,  tyrannical  power,  that  had 
so  sad  effects.” 

Personal  dedication  to  God,  in  a written  form,  in  which  the 
person  gives  himself,  or  herself,  up  to  be  the  Lord’s  alone,  and 
for  ever,  is  an  exercise  Avhich  has  often  been  engaged  in  by  the 
pious  young,  in  the  youthful  ardor  of  their  religious  feelings  ; 
and  though,  if  performed  in  a self-righteous  spirit,  it  may  be  the 
means  of  fostering  dangerous  delusion,  yet,  if  performed  evan- 
gelically, in  the  way  of  the  person’s  renouncing  all  dependence 

34 


398 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


on  liis  own  righteousness  and  strength,  trusting  to  Christ’s  right- 
eousness alone  for  salvation,  and  to  God’s  grace  for  strength  to 
perform  the  engagements  come  under,  it  may,  and  has  often  been, 
highly  profitable  to  him,  both  at  the  time  and  afterward,  encour- 
aging him  to  cleave  to  God  and  his  service  in  difficulties,  in  peril, 
and  even  in  death.  So  much  was^the  heart  of  this  young  lady 
drawn  out  to  God,  under  the  sermons  of  the  ejected  ministers, 
that  she  resolved,  by  a solemn  transaction  of  this  nature,  to  make 
an  entire  surrender  of  herself  to  Him ; and,  upon  her  going  to 
the  country,  where  her  greater  seclusion  afforded  her  more  con- 
venience for  such  an  exercise,  she  engaged  in  it  with  peculiar 
solemnity.  “ But,”  says  she,  “ in  these  corners  there  was  such 
sweetness  found  in  the  preached  word  out  of  the  mouths  of  his 
sent  servants  (as  Mr.  Gilbert  Hall,  that  shining  light,  and  Mr. 
George  Johnston),  as  did  lead  me  to  a further  solicitude  how  to 
close  with  these  great  gospel  offers,  the  publication  of  a Savior 
to  undone  sinners  being  then  made  sweet ; so  that  I proposed,  if 
the  Lord  should  give  opportunity,  that  I should  essay  that  indis- 
pensable duty  of  covenanting ; which,  accordingly,  I did  in  the 
sixteenth  year  of  my  age,  when  brought  to  the  country,  at  Bal- 
carres,"^  where  I enjoyed  more  of  solitude  in  a retired  lot.”  The 
covenant  which  she  had  written  out,  and  subscribed  with  her 
own  hand,  has  not  been  preserved ; but  her  whole  account  of  the 
transaction  breathes  a spirit  strictly  evangelical,  as  well  as  devout. 
She  declares  that  she  was  much  countenanced  in  that  work,  in 
the  Lord’s  enabling  her  to  improve  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation, 
without  which  she  felt  herself  to  be  a lost  sinner.  She  also 
testifies,  that  this  solemn  dedication  was  the  means  of  her  attain- 
ing great  settledness  and  serenity  of  mind and  that  then  she 
was  ‘‘  taken  up  more  than  usually  in  the  exercises  of  delight  and 
praise  to  the  renowned  name  of  Him  who  is  the  blessed  rose  of 
Sharon,  and  lily  of  the  valleys  ; which  made  those  retirements 
from  a vain  world  sweet  to  her  for  some  weeks  after.”  She 
adds,  “ The  singing  of  Psalm  xlv.  was  frequently  made  sweet  to 
me,  in  those  retired  walks  in  Balcarres  planting.” 

After  this  she  resided  for  a time  at  Stirling ; and  she  adverts 
to  several  private  meetings  for  sermon,  at  which  she  was  pres 
ent — some  of  them  in  the  night,  because  of  the  persecution — by 
which  she  was  strengthened  and  edified. 

Her  early  scruples  about  hearing  the  curates  continuing  to  in- 
crease, she  very  soon  altogether  withdrew  from  attending  their 

* That  is,  at  Balcarres  house,  the  seat  of  her  brother,  the  earl  of  Balcarres,  in  the 
parish  of  Kilconquhar,  Fifeshire. 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK. 


399 


ministry ; and,  though  frowned  upon  for  this  by  some  in  high 
places,  she  had  the  moral  courage  to  act  in  conformity  with  her 
deliberate  convictions  of  duty,  in  spite  of  censures  and  sneers, 
and  enjoyed  the  inward  satisfaction  which  always  accompanies 
fidelity  to  conscience.  “ Being  again,”  says  she,  “ some  time 
after  this,  brought  to  Edinburgh,  it  was  found  greatly  afflicting 
to  attend  on  these  time-serving  formal  sermons,  which  then  were 
authorized  by  authority,  and  became  matter  of  bitterness,  and 
was  such  a grievance  as  did  necessarily  oblige  me  to  withdraw 
from  frequenting  them,  both  at  Stirling  and  at  Edinburgh ; and 
though  ill-looked  upon  by  some  then  in  power,  for  being  scrupu- 
lous about  this,  yet  there  was  more  peace  in  this,  from  consider- 
ations that  were  considerable  to  a mind  that  was  solicitous  anent 
clearness.” 

Lady  Henrietta  had  been  early  admitted  to  the  Lord’s  supper, 
and  though  she  afterward  believed  that  she  was  then  an  unworthy 
partaker,  yet  this  neither  cast  her  into  despair,  nor  led  her  to 
neglect  the  observance  of  this  ordinance  in  future,  but  rather 
served  to  excite  her  to  diligence  in  seeking  after  the  qualifications 
of  a worthy  communicant.  Numerous  evidences  occur  in  her 
diary,  of  the  high  veneration  with  which  she  contemplated  that 
sacred  institution,  and  of  the  spiritual  comfort  and  profit  she  had 
derived  from  its  observance.  In  that  document,  a particular  ac- 
count is  given  of  not  less  than  twenty  of  these  solemn  occasions,* 
at  which  she  was  a communicant.  About  this  time  she  went  to 
Cambusnethan,  where  Mr.  William  Violant,  whom  she  describes 
as  “ that  shining  light,”  was  indulged  minister,  to  observe  the 
Lord’s  supper,  though  the  distance  was  great  from  Balcarres,  to 
which  she  had  removed  some  time  before,  and  she  stayed  in  the 
house  of  Sir  Thomas  Stewart  of  Coltness,  where  she  met  with 
much  kindness,  from  both  friends  and  strangers. 

From  Cambusnethan  she  returned  to  Edinburgh,  vv^here,  for  a 
season,  through  the  violence  of  the  persecution,  she  had  no  op- 
portunity of  hearing  the  gospel  preached.  She  felt  her  silent 
sabbaths  very  bitter,”  though  the  secret  exercises  of  religion 
were  very  comforting  to  her ; and  she  again  set  apart  some  time 
for  renewing  her  former  transaction  of  self-dedication  to  be  the 
Lord’s,  “ which  Bethel-day  was  made  among  the  sweetest  she 
ever  had  on  earth.”  At  length,  in  private  houses,  she  frequently 
enjoyed  “ sweet  gospel  days,  notwithstanding  the  severities  en- 

* These  are  one  at  Weems,  one  at  Pittenweem,  one  at  Tillicoultry,  one  at  Pais- 
ley, one  at  Cambusnethan,  one  at  Killallan,  one  at  Dirleton,  three  at  Campbeltown, 
one  at  London,  one  atDelf.  and  eight  at  Rotterdam. 


400 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


joined  and  at  these  meetings,  “ which  were  wonderfully  hedged 
and  protected  from  that  avenging  persecution,”  Mr.  Alexander 
Moncrieff  and  Mr.  John  Carstairs,  ‘‘  those  great  and  shining 
lights,  were  helped  marvellously  to  deliver  great  truths,”  and  en- 
abled to  display  great  boldness  of  spirit,  and  resolution  in  the 
discharge  of  their  Master’s  work.” 

About  this  time  she  went  to  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord’s  Sup- 
per, at  Dirleton,  and,  returning  home,  she  fell  into  a languishing 
condition  of  body ; but,  on  her  removal  to  Balcarres,  she  gradu- 
ally recovered.  When  previously  residing  at  Balcarres,  she  had 
attended  the  curate  of  the  parish,  “ whose  ministry  was  a heavy 
burden  in  the  place  but  now,  more  true  to  her  convictions,  she 
altogether  absented  herself ; and  yet,  on  this  account,  offensive 
as  her  conduct  might  be  to  the  curate,  neither  her  friends  nor 
strangers  frowned  upon  her.  Returning  to  Inverary,  she  regu- 
larly heard  Mr.  Patrick  Campbell  preach  once  every  sabbath, 
and  also  derived  much  spiritual  profit  from  the  fellowship  and 
example  of  some  experienced  Christians  in  the  parish.  She 
records  that,  about  this  time,  Mr.  Alexander  Wedderburn,  ‘‘  that 
eminent  shining  light,”  paid  a visit  to  Inverary,  and  remained 
several  weeks,  during  whic^  time  his  ministry  was  accompanied 
with  much  evidence  of  the  power  and  presence  of  God.  Shortly 
after,  she  and  several  of  her  friends,  went  to  the  sacrament  of 
the  Lord’s  Supper  at  Killallan,*  of  which  Mr.  James  Hutchison 
was  indulged  minister ; and,  on  the  close  of  this  occasion,  she 
spent  some  weeks  with  the  marchioness  of  Argyll,  at  her  resi- 
dence at  Roseneath,  where,  for  several  sabbaths,  she  had  the 
pleasure  of  listening  to  the  pastoral  instructions  of  Mr.  Neil  Gil- 
lies, indulged  minister  in  that  place. 

Leaving  the  marchioness  of  Argyll,  she  returned  to  Inverary, 
and  was  soon  after  united  in  marriage  to  Sir  Duncan  Campbell, 
fourth  baronet  of  Auchinbreck,  who  was  descended  from  the 
same  stock  as  the  earl  of  Argyll,  to  whom  he  was  only  second 
in  the  county  of  Argyll.  He  succeeded  his  uncle.  Sir  Dugald, 
who  died  without  issue,  soon  after  the  restoration  of  Charles  Il.f 
After  her  marriage  she  went  to  dwell  at  the  residence  of  Sir 
Duncan,  at  Lochgair,  a mansion  of  great  size,  but  which  was 
cast  to  the  ground  when  the  property  went  to  other  hands. | 

Killallan  and  Houstoun  form  a united  parish,  now  generally  called  Houstoun. 

t Douglas’s  Baronage  of  Scotland,  p.  62. 

t New  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland,  Kilmichael-Glassary,  Argyllshire,  p.  684. 
The  Campbell  of  Auchinbreck  family  held  their  baron  bailie  courts  at  Kilmichael, 
ther.  a populous  village,  and  a place  of  considerable  importance,  not  only  to  the  par- 
ish, but  also  in  the  county. 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AIJCHINBRECK. 


401 


Here  she  found  her  lot  “ abimdantiy  creditable,”  and  also  very 
comfortable,  meeting  with  ‘‘  much  fond  affection  and  kindness,” 
both  from  Sir  Duncan  and  from  his  relations  ; “ which,”  says 
she,  ‘‘with  all  dutiful  affection,  will  be  ever  remembered  with 
the  greatest  gratitude.”  The  only  want  she  appears  to  have  felt 
in  this  remote  locality,  was  her  deprivation  of  the  preaching  of 
the  gospel,  “ these  bounds  being  then  as  a heath  in  the  wilder- 
ness, as  to  the  means  of  grace  ;”  for  the  minister  of  the  parish, 
like  too  many  of  the  intruded  curates,  was  a corrupt,  insignificant 
teacher.  On  some  occasions,  however,  though  rarely,  by  rea- 
son of  the  persecution,  she  received  visits  from  nonconforming 
ministers,  by  whose  society  and  instruction  she  was  greatly  re- 
freshed. 

Previous  to  her  confinement,  she  went  to  Edinburgh,  where,  on 
the  30th  of  January,  her  son,  James,  a child  whom  she  devoted 
to  God  from  the  womb,  and  who  afterward  succeeded  his  father, 
was  born.  Some  weeks  after,  she  and  Sir  Duncan,  with  their 
child,  returned  to  Lochgair ; and,  notwithstanding  the  severity 
with  which  the  persecution  then  raged,  they  enjoyed  much  tran- 
quillity during  the  most  of  that  year.  At  this  time,  the  earl  of 
Argyll  paying  them  a visit,  invited  them  to  come  and  stay  with 
him  for  a few  months,  at  the  castle  of  Inverary.  They  readily 
accepted  his  invitation,  and  took  along  with  them  their  infant 
boy,  who  was  there  “ nursed  with  his  grandmother  with  the 
greatest  affection  and  tenderness.” 

In  July,  she  and  Sir  Duncan,  with  their  child,  went  to  Kin- 
tyre,  with  the  most  of  the  earl  of  Argyll’s  and  her  mother’s  fami- 
lies, forming  a numerous  company.  Their  society  was  exceed- 
ingly agreeable,  and  they  had  an  opportunity  of  attending  at  the 
dispensation  of  the  Lord’s  supper  in  that  place,  on  two  sabbaths 
in  succession.*  All  of  them,  but  especially  Lady  Campbell  and 
her  mother,  were  much  interested  in  the  services  of  these  solemn 
occasions ; “ which,”  says  Lady  Campbell,  writing  after  the 
revolution,  “ were  made  a double  meal  to  many  ; and,  indeed,  as 
this  meal  was  doubled  to  many,  so  many  had  a long  jour- 
ney to  go  in  the  strength  of  it,  as  was  sweetly  forewarned,  and 
with  great  utterance  and  liveliness  was  told  us.  I never  saw 
such  a sight  of  young  communicants,  or  more  seriousness,  the 
seeds  whereof,  it  is  hoped,  do  remain  in  that  place,  that  is 
blessed  again  with  a powerful  signalizing  ministry.”  She  adds, 

^ Mr.  David  Simpson  was  indulged  minister  at  Kintyre,  in  1672.  He  was  eject- 
ed from  bis  ministry  at  Southend,  after  the  Restoration,  for  nonconformity. — Wod- 
row’s  History,  vol.  i.,  p.  328  ; and  vol.  ii.,  p.  204. 

34* 


402 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


“ These  two  eminent  lights  soon  after  were  put  out,  by  the  re- 
moval of  Mr.  Cameron  and  Mr.  Keith,  as  a sad  presage  to  the 
place  and  to  our  nation ; as,  indeed,  appeared  immediately  after, 
by  the  growing  desolation  and  trouble  that  daily  increased;  to 
the  putting  a further  restraint  on  ministers  and  people,  many  of 
whom  were  imprisoned,  harassed,  chased  to  the  hazard  of  their 
lives,  the  violating  of  the  consciences  of  others,  and  the  fearful 
bloodshed  of  many ; retrenching  our  liberties,  so  that  it  was 
made  a crime  to  meet,  or  convene  to  the  worship  of  the  living 
God,  except  in  such  a manner  as  our  nation  was  solemnly  sworn 
against ; laying  bonds  on  ministers  not  to  preach,  or  people  to 
hear,  under  such  and  such  penalties,  fines,  hazards,  as  were  end- 
less to  rehearse  ; things  running  to  such  a height,  to  the  intro- 
ducing of  popery  itself,  if  the  Lord  had  not  prevented,  that  there 
were  almost  no  thinking  persons  but  were  under  the  dread  and 
fear  of  this  approaching  judgment.  Thus,  for  several  years,  was 
this  growing  speat  of  persecution  groaned  under  by  many  fami- 
lies and  persons,  which,  when  called  to  mind,  can  not  but  excite 
to  wonder,  bearing  witness  to  this  cruel  bondage,  much  like  to 
the  case  of  those  in  Psalm  Ixvi.  12,  ‘ Thou  hast  caused  men  to 
ride  over  our  heads  ; we  went  through  fire  and  through  water ; 
but  thou  broughtest  us  out  into  a wealthy  place  for  which,  oh  to 
be  helped  to  go  to  thy  house  with  burnt-ofiferings,  that  each  of  us 
to  pay  those  vows  which  our  lips  have  uttered  and  our  mouths 
have  spoken  when  we  were  in  this  trouble  !” 

Lady  Campbell’s  attachment  to  the  cause  of  nonconformity,  as 
might  be  expected,  created  her  opposition,  remote  as  was  the 
part  of  the  country  where  she  resided ; for  in  the  most  remote 
localities  there  were  always  some  individuals — the  curates,  if  no 
others — who  made  it  their  business  to  discover  such  as  Avere 
hostile  to  prelacy,  and  to  entail  on  them  the  penalties  of  perse- 
cution. In  the  year  1684,  an  attempt  was  made,  owing  to  the 
malignity  or  cupidity  of  base  informers,  to  banish  the  worship  of 
God  from  her  'house  ; as  appears  from  her  gratefully  speaking  of 
the  Lord’s  “ mercifully  hiding  her  as  in  a pavilion,  even  from  the 
strife  of  tongues,  and  his  never-to-be-forgotten  mercy  under  the 
adversaries’  bold  attack  to  turn  the  worship  of  God  out  of  her 
family.”  From  this  general  statement,  the  particular  circum- 
stances of  the  case  can  only  be  guessed  at.  As  it  was  then  per- 
fectly legal  for  the  master  of  a family  to  assemble  his  own  do- 
mestics for  reading  the  Scriptures  and  for  prayer.  Sir  Duncan — 
had  the  government  been  regulated  by  their  own  laws,  which, 
however,  was  not  always  the  case — could  not  have  been  found 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK. 


403 


fault  with,  and  punished  for  performing  those  duties  himself.  It 
may,  therefore,  be  supposed,  that  he  retained  in  his  family  a 
presbyterian  chaplain,  whose  duty  it  was  to  lead  the  devotions  at 
the  domestic  altar  ; and  that  the  government  being  informed  of  this. 
Sir  Duncan  was  threatened  with  prosecution,  or  actually  prose- 
cuted on  that  ground.  The  result  she  does  not  declare  ; but,  as 
an  evidence  of  their  firmness  of  purpose,  it  may  be  mentioned, 
that,  when  the  case  was  pending,  and  occasioning  them  no  small 
anxiety,  they  cordially  welcomed  into  their  house  at  Lochgair, 
an  ejected  minister,  who  unexpectedly  paid  them  a visit,  though 
such  hospitality  was  then  in  no  small  degree  perilous  ; and  they, 
moreover,  during  his  stay  with  them,  though  at  the  risk  of  heavy 
penalties,  gladly  converted  their  house  into  a little  sanctuary, 
where  their  domestics  and  neighbors  assembled  to  hear  the  words 
of  eternal  life  at  his  mouth.  But,”  says  she,  “ while  thus  under 
unaccountable  thoughtfulness  about  the  event,  and  great  trouble, 
the  Lord  directed  one  of  his  faithful  and  chosen  servants  unex- 
pectedly to  our  family,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Robert  Muir,  eminent  in 
his  day;  and  though  the  time  was  difficulting,  yet  Sir  Duncan 
was  moved  to  favor  and  welcome  him,  and  would  not  part  with 
him  for  some  weeks  ; which  was  made  a seasonable  refreshing 
visit  to  some.  These  lectures,  and  family  exercise  and  sermons, 
were  made  often  as  light  from  the  dead,  not  only  instructing  to 
the  great  conviction  of  severals,  but  were  made  strengthening 
and  comforting  to  others  ; and  though  several  did  meet  together 
during  his  being  with  us,  yet  never  did  the  least  trouble  follow, 
save  to  part  again,  which  was  not  easy  to  many.”  Mr.  Muir,  as 
we  shall  see  in  the  sequel,  had  afterward  an  opportunity  of  re- 
paying the  kindness  he  at  this  time  received  from  Lady  Camp- 
bell and  Sir  Duncan,  when  his  hosts  were  brought  into  circum- 
stances of  distress. 

In  the  winter  following — that  is,  about  the  close  of  the  year 
1684,  or  the  beginning  of  the  year  1685 — Sir  Duncan  being  un- 
justly and  maliciously  accused  of  uttering  expressions  reflecting 
on  the  government,  for  which  he  was  in  danger  of  prosecution, 
she  proceeded  along  with  him  to  Edinburgh,  through  a great  fall 
of  snow,  with  the  design,  it  would  appear,  of  leaving  the  country  ; 
but,  on  reaching  the  capital,  they  were  happily  relieved  from  this 
threatened  trouble  ; and,  staying  there  for  some  weeks,  they  had 
opportunity,  though  but  seldom,  of  hearing  the  gospel  preached 
by  some  of  the  nonconforming  ministers.  At  this  time,  Charles  11. 
died ; an  event  which,  severe  as  the  persecution  had  been  under 
his  reign,  excited,  from  the  well-known  crvielty  and  bigotry  of  his 


404 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


brother  James,  who  succeeded  him,  the  most  alarming  apprehen- 
sions in  regard  to  the  future.  “ In  which  time,”  says  she,  ‘‘  King 
Charles’s  death  fell  out,  which  ushered  in  great  agitation  in  the 
minds  of  many,  who  did  foresee  and  fear  what  indeed  did  follow  ; 
matters  being  screwed  to  such  a height,  as  protestants  could  not 
but  be  greatly  alarmed ; which  unquestionably  gave  rise  to  the 
late  earl  of  Argyll’s  project  from  Holland,  the  Lord  seeing  it 
meet  to  move  the.  heart  of  severals  to  bestir  themselves  in  behalf 
of  their  religion  and  liberty,  when  so  largely  run  down ; as  did 
evidently  appear  by  the  * scaffolding,  dragooning,  torturing,  and 
barbarous  practices  among  us,  so  that  either  our  ruin  or  relief 
seemed  to  be  at  hand.”* 

The  summer  after  this,  she  and  Sir  Duncan  were  residing  at 
Carnassary  castle,*  which  stood  on  an  eminence,  at  the  head  of 
the  valley  of  Kilmartin,  anciently  called  Strathmore,  and  the 
ruins  of  which  are  still  to  be  seen.  While  residing  here,  she 
enjoyed  for  some  weeks  the  society  of  her  desirable  sister,” 
Lady  Sophia.  At  the  same  time  she  was  attacked  by  a high 
fever,  and  in  her  sickness  was  visited  by  her  mother,  who,  on 
her  recovery,  prevailed  with  her  to  accompany  her  and  Lady 
Sophia  to  Stirling,  and  live  there  with  her  and  her  sister  till  her 
health  should  be  more  fully  recruited. 

During  the  time  of  her  stay  Avith  her  mother  at  Stirling,  tidings 
came  to  the  government  that  the  earl  ol  Argyll  had  touched  at 
Orkney ; upon  which,  as  has  already  been  recorded,  her  “ dear 
mother”  was,  by  an  order  of  the  privy  council,  immediately  ap- 
prehended, and  carried  prisoner  to  Stirling  castle,  and  thence,  on 
a sabbath  morning,  to  the  castle  of  Edinburgh.  Her  “ dear  sis- 
ter,” Lady  Sophia,  was  also  imprisoned ; and  many  of  the  most 
substantial  of  the  Campbell  name  were  seized  and  made  close 
prisoners  in  the  Canongate  tolbooth.  Some  days  after.  Sir  Dun- 
can, on  receiving  intelligence  of  the  earl’s  coming  to  Campbel- 
town, and  the  need  he  had  of  aid,  willing  to  hazard  his  all  to 
promote  the  design  of  this  undertaking,  went,  through  manifold 
difficulties,  and  even  at  the  peril  of  his  life,  to  join  him,  with  a 
considerable  number  of  his  men,t  who,  however,  continued  not 

Carnassary  castle  was  the  residence  of  Mr.  John  Carsewell,  when,  after  the 
Reforaiation  from  popery,  he  became  superintendent  of  Argyll ; and  after  his  death, 
which  took  place  in  the  year  1575,  it  became  the  property  and  occasional  residence 
of  the  Campbells  of  Auchinbreck. — New  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland.  Kilmar- 
tin, Argyllshire,  pp.  555,  556, 

tWodrow  says  eight  hundred. — (^History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  290.)  Fountainhall  says 
two  hundred.  “ Sir  Duncan  Campbell  of  Auchinbreck,’ ' says  he,  “with  two  hun- 
dred men,  went  to  him,  under  the  pretence  he  was  bound  by  his  charter  to  assist 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK. 


405 


long  together ; for  they  were  “ scattered,”  says  Lady  Campbell, 
‘‘  to  the  unaccountable  grief  and  sadness  of  many,  who  were 
breathing  for  a deliverance.” 

With  much  bitterness  of  spirit  she  took  leave  of  Sir  Duncan 
at  Stirling,  when  he  was  about  to  join  Argyll,  for  she' dreaded 
the  result ; nor  was  she  altogether  satisfied  as  to  the  expediency 
of  the  undertaking,  though  the  laudableness  of  the  object  pre- 
vented her  from  making  any  opposition.  “ A time,”  says  she, 
“ not  to  be  forgotten  was  this',  and  what  this  parting  was  when 
he  left  me  at  Stirling.  And  though  it  became  me  not  to  be  so 
selfish  as  to  stand  in  the  way  of  a more  public  concern,  when  so 
much  seemed  to  be  at  the  stake,  yet  I wa^  far  from  encouraging 
him  in  it,  because  I had  not  that  clearness  in  it  that  could  have 
been  wished.  The  seen  danger  he  was  exposed  to  at  this  time 
was  as  the  bereaving  me  of  my  life,  so  much  was  it  bound  up  in 
him  ; but  the  Lord  was  graciously  pleased  to  support,  so  that  some 
of  those  days  were  more  wonderful,  and  any  time  spent  alone 
was  more  than  ordinarily  countenanced,  and  these  loneliest  times 
were  made  sweeter  than  could  have  been  expected,  although  un- 
der the  prospect  of  heavy  times  to  follow.”  She  continues  : 
“ The  following  day,  we  had  the  unaccountable,  sad,  and  dismal 
notice  of  the  ruin  of  that  undertaking,  wherein  the  expectations 
of  many  were  sadly  defeated ; but  the  Lord’s  time  was  not  come 
for  our  deliverance,  and  that  which  did  greatly  aggravate  the  ter- 
ribleness of  that  stroke  was  the  dreadful  aspect  these  circum- 
stances appeared  to  have,  not  possible  to  relate,  sufferings  of  va- 
rious kinds  being  from  all  airths  expected,  and  an  increase  of  our 
thraldom  greatly  dreaded.” 

On  the  subsequent  day,  at  St.  Ninians,  she  passed,  in  deep 
disguise,  through  several  guards,  in  order  to  obtain  more  certain 
intelligence  respecting  her  nearest  friends  ; and  learning  that 
they  were  in  danger,  she  was  greatly  distressed.  She  watched 
during  the  greater  part  of  that  night,  and  returned  at  four  o’clock 
in  the  morning  to  Stirling  ; where,  on  being  informed  that  Sir 
Duncan  was  on  the  road,  her  fears  regarding  his  safety  were 
heightened.  Taking  leave  that  day  of  her  dear  Jamie,”  whom 
“ the  Lord  provided  friends  to  care  for,”  though  she  left  him  very 
destitute,  having  no  relative  to  whom  she  could  intrust  him  (her 
mother  and  sister  being  at  this  time  prisoners),  she,  with  much 
confusion  and  agitation  of  mind,  set  out  for  Edinburgh,  walking 
and  riding  alternately.  When  some  miles  on  her  journey,  being 

him  ; which  can  not  oblige  him  against  the  king,  nor  defend  him  for  treason.^’ — De* 
cisions,  voL  i.,  p 363. 


406 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


then  on  foot,  she  unexpectedly  met,  near  Falkirk,  the  earl  of 
Argyll,  who  was  brought  that  length  prisoner  on  his  way  to  Ed- 
inburgh ; “ which,”  says  she,  “ was  a mournful  sight  to  one  who 
bore  him  so  great  affection.”  He  does  not,  however,  appear  to 
have  observed  her.  She  was  in  deep  disguise,  and  did  not  ven- 
ture to  come  near  him,  but  held  up  in  the  rear,  at  some  distance, 
most  part  of  the  way,  till  the  horse  on  which  she  was  riding 
failed.  Judging  it  more  than  probable  that  Sir  Duncan  was 
taken,  and  being  informed  by  several  persons  on  the  road  that 
such  was  the  case,  she  was  greatly  troubled.  But  the  report 
of  his  apprehension  was  unfounded  ; for,  though  searched  for 
in  several  places,  he  was  wonderfully  preserved  from  falling  into 
the  hands  of  his  enemies — a mercy  “ which,  on  many  accounts, 
she  desired  to  remember,  v/ith  great  thankfulness  and  praise.” 

Before  reaching  Edinburgh,  she  was  under  the  necessity  of 
staying  all  night  on  the  road,  and  had  some  difficulty  in  getting 
lodgings.  Owing  to  the  fatigue  of  travelling,  and  to  great  heavi- 
ness and  pressure  of  mind,  arising  from  her  own  personal  con- 
cerns, from  the  calamities  of  various  kinds  which  had  befallen 
or  were  about  to  befall  many  who  were  concerned  in  Argyll’s 
attempt,  and  from  fears  respecting  her  husband,  of  whose  safety 
she  was  ignorant,  sleep  departed  from  her  eyes  ; but,  as  the  Lord 
had  commanded  his  loving-kindness  in  the  daytime,  so  in  the 
night  of  trouble  his  song  was  with  her,  and  her  prayer  unto  the 
God  of  her  life,  “ who  made  this  among  the  sweetest  nights  that 
ever  she  had,  or  durst  have  expected,  so  that  sleep  was  neither 
missed  nor  sought  after.” 

Next  morning,  coming  early  to  Edinburgh,  at  the  opening  of 
the  gates,  she  received  the  afflicting  news  of  the  barbarous  treat- 
ment the  “ dear  earl”  of  Argyll  had  met  with  in  his  being  brought 
to  the  castle  ; and  also  heard  very  painful  rumors  regarding  sev- 
eral of  her  nearest  relations,  which  again  plunged  her  in  distress. 
When  revolving  in  her  mind  where  to  go,  she  was  directed  to 
the  lodgings  of  “ a dear,  sympathizing  friend,  Mr.  Robert  Muir,” 
with  whom  she  “ found  much  favor  and  kind  reception,  and  whose 
company,  on  this  afflicting  sabbath,  was  no  small  blessing  to  her  ; 
and  what  was  I,”  she  adds,  “ that  the  Lord  should  thus  regard 
me,  that  in  most  of  my  greatest  troubles  he  hath  been  pleased  to 
favor  me  with  his  people’s  society  and  company  ? but  he  is  gra- 
cious, and  his  compassions  fail  not.”  Ever  since  Mr.  Muir  had 
stayed  some  weeks  with  her  and  Sir  Duncan  at  their  house  at 
Lochgair,  “ his  instructions,  singular  sympathy,  and  affectionate 
help,”  had  been  of  great  advantage  to  them  both  ; “ and  there- 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK. 


407 


fore,”  says  she,  “ I hope  and  enjoin  that  it  may  not  be  forgot  by 
such  of  mine  as  may  outlive  this  acknowledgment ; but  above 
all,”  she  adds  (for  hbr  pious  spirit  led  her  to  see  the  hand  of  God 
in  everything),  “ is  to  be  acknowledged  the  wonderful  compas- 
sion of  the  high  and  lofty  One,  in  thus  compassionating  the  exi- 
gencies of  the  indigent,  and  ‘ therefore  I will  be  glad  and  rejoice 
in  thy  mercy ; for  thou  hast  considered  my  trouble  ; thou  hast 
known  my  soul  in  adversities,’  Ps.  xxxi.  7.” 

On  the  following  day,  she  had  certain  information  of  Sir  Dun- 
can’s “ safety,  and  marvellous  preservation,”  which  greatly  re- 
lieved her  burdened  mind  concerning  him  ; and  she  was  then  in 
better  case  to  make  inquiry  after  her  “ dear  afflicted  mother,  who 
was  harshly  treated,”  and  who  was  greatly  afflicted  in  prospect 
of  the  cruel  death  of  her  husband,  the  earl  of  Argyll. 

Lady  Campbell  and  the  earl  of  Argyll  entertained  a high  es- 
teem and  warm  affection  for  each  other.  By  the  Christian  ex- 
cellence of  her  character  she  had  gained  upon  his  heart,  and  he 
always  treated  her  with  kindness,  as  if  she  had  been  his  own 
child.  She,  on  the  other  hand,  cherished  toward  him  the  ten- 
derness of  a daughter.  This,  as  well  as  sympathy  with  her 
mother,  made  his  death  a sore  stroke  to  her.  On  the  morning 
of  the  day  on  which  he  was  executed,  she  obtained  an  interview 
with  him,  though  not  till  he  was  brought  to  the  council-house. 
When  admitted  to  him,  she  was  greatly  comforted  in  witnessing 
his  composed,  edifying  carriage,  in  circumstances  so  trying  to 
human  fortitude.  After  endearing  expressions,  he  said  to  her, 
“We  must  not  part  like  those  not  to  meet  again.”  And  she  tes- 
tifies that  he  went  thence  to  the  place  of  execution  “ with  the 
greatest  assurance.”  As  a last  memorial  of  his  affectionate  re- 
membrance of  her,  he  wrote  to  her  a letter  on  the  last  day  of  his 
life,  and  it  was  probably  written  in  the  council-house,  immedi- 
ately after  this  interview  between  them,  at  the  same  time  that  he 
wrote  a letter  to  her  sister  Lady  Sophia  and  another  to  her  mother. 
It  is  as  follows  : — 

June  30,  1685. 

“ Dear  Lady  Henrietta  : I pray  God  sanctify  and  bless 
this  lot  to  you.  Our  concerns  are  strangely  mixed ; the  Lord 
look  on  them ; I know  all  shall  turn  to  good  to  them  that  fear 
God,  and  hope  in  his  mercy.  So  I know  you  do,  and  that  you 
may  still  do  it  more  and  more  is  my  wish  for  you.  The  Lord  com- 
fort you  ! — I am,  your  loving  father  and  servant,  Argyll.”* 

*■  Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  304.  Some  person  had  taken  a copy  of  this  letter 
at  the  time,  and  by  this  means  it  was  preserved.  Mr.  John  Anderson,  minister  of 


408 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


To  the  sorrow  of  Lady  Campbell,  occasioned  by  the  execution 
of  Argyll,  and  the  condition  of  her  mother,  was  added  the  sor- 
row occasioned  by  the  cruel  manner  in  which  many  of  the  Camp- 
bell clan  were  treated,  the  close  imprisonment  of  her  sister,  and 
the  rapine  and  violence  committed  upon  Sir  Duncan’s  property, 
and  that  of  his  friends  and  tenants.  “ At  this  melancholy  time,” 
says  she,  ‘‘  account  came  of  many  of  our  folks,  that  were  taken 
and  brought  in  like  slaves,  so  as  many  prisons  were  filled  ; others 
spoiled  of  all  that  they  had,  who  had  been  in  jail  all  this  time,  and 
no  way  in  arms  ; their  houses  rifled,  and  young  ones  put  to  flight. 
Many  were  harassed,  and  twenty-three  gentlemen  and  feuars 
were  executed  in  one  day,  by  that  bloody  person*  who  gave  or- 
ders for  it.  My  dear  sister  was  close  prisoner,  so  as  none  of  us 
had  access  to  her ; our  whole  bounds  and  interest  laid  waste  ; 
many  put  to  flight ; our  house  burned,!  and  many  put  to  great 
hardships,  as  were  unaccountable  to  relate ; Sir  Duncan’s  uncle 
[Alexander  Campbell  of]  Strondour,  slain  at  our  gate,  and  [Dugald 
Mactavish  of]  Duardary,  executed  at  Bowdraught.]:  Yet,”  she 
adds,  “ O the  graciousness  of  the  Lord,  who  gave  a back  for  the 
burden,  as  is  wonderful  at  in  looking  back  on  it ; as  also  on  the 
bounty  and  goodness  of  the  Lord,  in  the  safety  of  so  many  in  the 
same  circumstances,  who  were  designed  to  be  a sacrifice,  but 
were  miraculously  preserved.” 

While,  as  is  stated  in  the  above  extract,  the  castle  of  Carnas- 
sary  was  burned  by  the  enemy,  and  burned,  too,  in  violation  of  a 
solemn  treaty,  her  other  and  chief  place  of  residence,  Lochgair 
house,  was,  with  the  like  perfidy,  plundered  of  all  its  furniture. 
Sir  Duncan’s  friends  defended  that  house  against  the  marquis  of 
Atholl’s  men  for  some  time  ; but  at  length  they  entered  into  a 

Kirkmaiden,  in  a letter  to  Wodrow,  dated  November  6, 1723,  speaking  of  Wodrow’s 
History,  says:  ‘‘  I was  much  surprised  when  I read  the  earl  of  Argyll’s  letter  to  my 
Lady  Henrietta  Campbell,  seeing  she  had  often  told  me  she  had  lost  it  long  ago; 
but,  it  seems,  some  person  had  got  a copy  of  it,  from  whom  you  have  had  it.” — Let- 
ters to  Wodrow,  MSS.  in  Advocates’  Library,  vol.  xxi.,  4to,  No.  133. 

The  marquis  of  Atholl.  The  whole  territory  of  the  Campbells  was  intrusted 
to  him,  when  the  earl  of  Argyll  fell  a sacrifice ; and  among  other  acts  of  cruelty 
and  lawless  violence  which  he  committed,  he  caused  to  be  executed  four  or  five  gen- 
tlemen of  the  name  of  Campbell,  after  they  had  received  quarter  and  protection 
upon  their  surrendering,  and  eighteen  more  at  Inverary,  without  even  the  formality 
of  a trial.  A small,  but  chaste  monument  of  chlorite,  erected  on  the  spot,  close  to 
the  church,  commemorates  their  tragical  death,  and,  with  great  moderation  of  lan- 
guage, the  cause  in  which  they  fell. — Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  310  ; and  New 
Statistical  Account  of  Scotland,  Inverary,  Argyllshire. 

t Viz  , the  castle  of  Inverary. 

t This  account  is  confirmed  by  “ a petition  of  Sir  Duncan  Campbell,  for  himself 
and  his  distressed  friends,  tenants,  and  vassals,  in  Knapdale,  Glassary,  and  Kelis- 
lait,”  presented  to  the  estates  of  parliament,  after  the  revolution. — See  Appendix, 
No.  XIV. 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK. 


409 


treaty  with  them,  and  surrendered  it  upon  condition  that  all  the 
furniture,  papers,  &c.,  should  be  preserved,  and  that  they  should 
be  allowed  to  convey  them  safe  to  Lady  Campbell.  But  this 
treaty  proved  a frail  security.  Too  perfidious  to  be  bound  by 
their  own  engagements,  Atholl’s  men  garrisoned  the  house  and 
plundered  it.  The  commander  of  the  party,  after  having  taken 
away  and  destroyed  most  of  what  was  in  the  house,  coveting  the 
charter-chest,  which  was  of  a very  curious  construction,  broke 
it  open,  and  turned  out  the  papers  on  the  floor  of  the  chamber 
where  it  stood,  sending  away  the  chest  for  his  own  use.  After 
this  reckless  spoliation  a party  of  soldiers  lay  in  the  house  about 
eight  or  ten  weejis.  It  is  a singular  fact,  that  after  the  revolution, 
when  Lady  Campbell  and  Sir  Duncan  returned  from  Holland,  they 
found  these  papers  lying  on  that  chamber  floor,  exactly  in  the  same 
state  as  when  turned  out  of  the  charter-chest,  though  they  had 
then  lain  exposed  nearly  four  years,  the  house  being  in  ruins,  and 
open  to  everybody.  On  coming  home,  as  the  mansion  at  Lochgair 
was  uninhabitable,  they  dwelt  for  some  time  in  another  house  ; in 
which  they  had  not  been  long,  when  Lady  Campbell  wished  to 
go  and  see  their  house  at  Lochgair,  and  desired  Sir  Duncan  to 
send  some  person  to  look  for  his  papers.  He  answered,  that  he 
was  certain  that  they  were  all  destroyed ; but  going  up  herself 
to  see  the  condition  of  the  house,  she  found  them  all  lying  in  a 
heap  on  the  floor,  and  caused  them  to  be  put  up  in  several  trunks 
and  carried  to  Edinburgh,  where,  on  examination,  it  was  found 
that  not  one  paper  of  value  was  amissing.* 

After  the  execution  of  the  earl  of  Argyll,  she  experienced,  for 
some  weeks,  much  mental  anxiety,  from  the  great  danger  to  which 
Sir  Duncan  was  exposed,  of  falling  into  the  hands  of  his  ene- 
mies. By  a proclamation,  dated  June  24,  1685,  for  apprehend- 
ing the  leading  men  who  had  been  concerned  in  Argyll’s  attempt, 
a reward  of  eighteen  hundred  merks  was  offered  to  such  as 
should  deliver  up  Sir  Duncan,  dead  or  alive,  to  the  government ; 
and  it  was  declared  treason  to  harbor,  reset,  or  correspond  with 
him,  or  any  of  the  persons  named  in  the  proclamation.!  But,  at 
the  risk  of  incurring  the  penalties  of  treason,  some  had  the  gen- 
erosity to  shelter  and  harbor  him ; and  this  Lady  Campbell 
piously  attributes  to  the  mercy  of  God,  who  had  inclined  their 
hearts  to  compassion. 

In  such  a state  of  matters,  she  and  Sir  Duncan  resolved  to 
leave  Scotland.  While  he  should  go  to  Holland  for  shelter,  she 

* Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  i.,  pp.  280-282 ; and  his  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  310. 

t Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  312. 

35 


410 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


was  to  go  to  England,  with  the  view,  if  possible,  of  obtaining, 
from  his  majesty,  the  favor  of  an  act  of  indemnity,  securing  at 
once  his  life  and  his  estates,  over  both  which  a deed  of  forfeiture 
was  impending.  His  purpose  of  making  his  escape.  Sir  Dun- 
can was  enabled  speedily  to  carry  into  effect.  He  arrived  safely 
in  Holland,  on  the  14th  of  August.  Meanwhile,  having  left  her 
child  behind  her.  Lady  Campbell  and  her  mother,  who  determined 
to  accompany  her  to  England,  proceeded  on  their  journey  ; in 
vhich  they  met  with  several  instances  of  providential  preserva 
tion,  which,  with  thankfulness,  she  desired  to  remember,  though 
the  relation  of  them  is  omitted  in  her  diary.  Many  were  the 
conflicting  feelings  which  agitated  her  mind,  in  the  trying  cir- 
cumstances in  which  she  was  now  placed ; but,  like  the  king  of 
Israel,  she  always  had  recourse  to  God’s  Word  in  the  time  of  her 
affliction,  and  that  was  the  source  whence  her  comfort  was  de- 
rived. “ After  this,”  says  she,  “ being  on  the  road  to  England, 
at  Durham,  on  the  9th  of  August  [1685],  being  the  sabbath,  and 
among  strangers,  and  at  a distance  from  those  wished-for  ordi- 
nances that  had  been  enjoyed,  when  alone,  and  full  of  sadness 
and  anxiety,  O how  sweet  was  that  word  made,  and  powerfully 
intimated  to  me  with  bowels  of  compassion — Rom.  viii.  35, 

* Neither  tribulation,  nor  distress,  nor  persecution,  nor  famine, 
nakedness,  nor  peril,  nor  sword,  shall  separate  us  from  the  love 
of  God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord !’  ” 

Reaching  London  in  safety,  she  continued  there  for  several 
months  ; and  during  that  period,  which  she  calls  “ an  afflictive 
time  to  both  nations,  as  may  be  memorable  to  after-ages,”  she  and 
her  mother  left  no  means  untried  to  obtain  indemnity  for  Sir 
Duncan.  But  from  King  James — the  consummation  of  tyranny, 
bigotry,  and  cruelty,  who  had  declared  that  it  would  never  be 
well  with  Scotland  until  the  south  of  the  Forth,  where  the  cove- 
nanters chiefly  abounded,  was  turned  into  a hunting-field,  and 
who  had  v/itnessed  the  limbs  of  the  presbyterians  crushed  and 
mangled  in  the  boot,  with  exquisite  and  savage  glee — she  had 
little  to  expect ; and  the  cold  reception  she  met  with  from  men 
in  power,  she  devoutly  contrasts  with  the  benignity  and  mercy 
with  which  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  heaven  and  of  earth  ever  wel- 
comes the  humble  suppliant,  who  approaches  his  throne  through 
Jesus  Christ.  “ Among  some  sweet  hours  then,”  she  writes, 
‘‘  though  in  a very  troublesome  attendance  at  Windsor,  where 
great  ones  of  the  world  were  solicited  and  waited  on  with  no  lit- 
tle painfulness  and  charge,  O how  did  it  give  occasion  to  com- 
mend the  preferableness  of  his  matchless  service,  who  is  King 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK. 


411 


of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords ! who  does  not  scare  at  petitioners 
because  of  their  blemishes  and  importunity ! there  being  no  want 
of  leisure  at  his  blessed  throne  ; no  destitute  case  is  slighted  by 
him  ; no  wilderness  condition  in  a solitary  way  doth  make  peti- 
tions burdensome  to  him,  but  he  satisfies  the  longing  soul,  and  fil- 
leth  the  hungry  with  good  things  ; no  distress,  peril,  or  sword, 
separates  from  his  love,  nor  does  he  break  the  bruised  reed,  or 
quench  the  smoking  flax  ; with  him  the  weary  and  heavy  laden 
find  acceptance  ; no  difficulty  being  too  great  for  him  who  sateth 
to  the  uttermo-st  all  that  come  to  God  through  him.” 

The  sight  she  had  of  the  court,  when  at  London,  was  far  from 
exciting  in  her  mind  the  feelings  of  envy.  Her  aspirations  were 
after  nobler  enjoyments  than  the  pageantry  and  luxury  of  a court 
could  bestow.  She  had  chosen  the  better  part,  and  she  thanked 
God,  that,  by  his  grace,  he  had  enabled  her  to  prefer  occupying 
a place  among  the  wronged  and  injured  of  his  people,  to  posses- 
sing all  the  wealth  and  honors  of  the  world.  She  thus  writes  in 
her  diary,  and  the  sentiments  bespeak  the  just  views  she  had  of 
the  objects  of  ambition,  which  become  a rational  and  an  immortal 
being : — “ London,  at  King's  Court. — Soon  after  this  [that  is, 
after  November,  1685],  having  occasion  to  see  the  outward  splen- 
dor of  the  court,  and  bravery  of  such  as  sit  at  ease  in  the  world, 
and  have  ail  that  their  heart  could  wish,  and  are  in  the  height 
of  their  enjoyment,  all  appeared  to  me  to  be  according  to  the 
Lord’s  reckoning,  and  was  esteemed  to  be  but  as  shadows  and 
dreams,  that  do  evanish  and  bear  little  bulk  when  put  in  compe- 
tition with  the  least  amount  or  degree  of  enjoyment  of  God,  in 
Jesus  Christ,  and  did  extort  this  short  meditation : ‘ O incom- 
parably matchless  choice,  that  can  never  be  suitably  esteemed, 
or  enough  valued,  loved,  or  delighted  in,  it  being  found  that  there 
is  no  true  tranquillity,  nor  sure  peace  or  comfort  but  in  God ; 
once  mine  and  ever  mine  ; there  being  no  change  or  alteration 
in  his  love.  And  at  this  time  it  was  made  matter  of  praise,  that 
ever  he  had  discovered  to  me  the  preferableness  of  choosing  af- 
fliction with  the  people  of  God,  to  enjoying  the  pleasures  of  sin 
for  a season.  The  blessing  of  them  that  are  ready  to  perish  be 
for  ever  upon  him,  who  has  discovered  and  taught  the  meaning 
of  that  blessed  promise,  ‘ And  every  one  that  hath  forsaken 
houses  or  brethren,  or  sisters,  or  father  or  mother,  or  wife  or 
children,  or  lands,  for  my  name’s  sake,  shall  receive  an  hundred- 
fold, and  shall  inherit  everlasting  life’  (Matt.  xix.  29)  ; which  is 
seen  to  be  not  only  full  of  compensation,  but  wonderfully  beyond 
any  temporal  enjoyment  that  ever  v/as  enjoyed  elsewhere.  His 


412 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


fellowship,  his  sympathy,  his  tender  mercy,  his  matchless  love  ; 
O incomparable  felicity  and  portion  ! O to  give  thanks  unto  the 
Lord,  for  his  mercy  endureth  for  ever.” 

At  the  time  that  Lady  Campbell  was  in  London,  the  English 
puritans  were  greatly  oppressed.  King  James  was  rigorously 
executing  the  severest  laws  in  force  against  them.  Richard 
Baxter  was  in  prison;  John  Howe  was  in  exile.  Puritan  con- 
gregations could  only  meet  by  night,  in  private  houses,  or  in 
waste  places  ; while  their  ministers  were  forced  to  preach  to 
them  in  the  garb  of  draymen,  colliers,  or  sailors,  and  to  steal  into 
the  houses  where  their  hearers  were  assembled,  through  windows 
and  trap-doors.*  To  this  distressing  condition  of  the  English 
nonconformists,  various  allusions  are  made  in  Lady  Campbell’s 
diary.  She  states  that,  while  in  London,  she  heard  the  word 
preached  only  in  a very  private  manner,  in  consequence  ‘‘  of  the 
spirit  of  violence  and  persecution  which  at  that  time  raged  in 
London.”  On  one  occasion,  she  there  enjoyed  the  ordinance 
of  the  Lord’s  supper  ; but  the  privacy  with  which  it  was  observed, 
and  the  means  taken  to  prevent  discovery,  indicate  the  extreme 
rigor  with  which  the  laws  against  nonconformity  were  enforced. 
It  was  dispensed  in  the  night-time,  in  a private  house  where  a 
select  company  had  assembled  for  the  holy  service.  The  min- 
isters who  officiated  were  two  Scotsmen,  Mr.  Nicholas  Blaikie, 
and  Mr.  George  Hamilton — the  former,  minister  of  Roberton  at 
the  restoration,  from  which  charge  he  was  ejected  for  noncon- 
formity ; and  the  latter,  minister  in  the  High  church  of  Edinburgh 
after  the  revolution.  The  number  of  communicants  was  about 
forty.  Speaking  of  this  sacramental  occasion,  after  the  revolu- 
tion, Lady  Campbell  says,  it  “ gave  occasion  for  mournful  con- 
siderations ; and  though  a great  privilege  to  be  admitted  to  [this 
ordinance],  yet  now,  when  looking  back  on  the  distress,  and 
barbarous  treatment  and  hazard,  that  were  in  those  days,  which 
made  meeting  together  about  uncontroverted  commanded  duties 
to  be  a crime,  this  may  heighten  our  notes  of  praise,  and  estima- 
tion of  our  privileges,  that  those  restraints  have  so  graciously 
been  removed  that  now  we  have  such  gospel  days.  This  is  the 
doing  of  the  Lord,  and  wondrous  in  our  eyes.” 

Very  different  was  the  manner  in  which  the  Roman  catholics 
were  dealt  with  by  King  James.  While  the  most  eminent  of  the 
puritan  divines  were  imprisoned,  or  in  exile,  friars  and  monks 
crowded  the  streets  of  London.  While  the  puritans  were  inter- 
dicted the  freedom  of  the  press,  the  presses  of  Oxford  were 
* Macaulay’s  History  of  England,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  204,  214. 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK. 


413 


throwing  off,  under  a royal  license,  breviaries  and  mass-books  in 
thousands.  While  the  puritans  could  only  meet  to  worship  God, 
in  the  manner  they  judged  most  agreeable  to  his  will,  in  private 
houses,  by  stealth,  ‘‘  the  host  was  publicly  exposed  in  London, 
under  the  protection  of  the  pikes  and  muskets  of  the  foot-guards 
and  the  popish  worship  was  conducted  in  their  chapels,  in  the 
most  open  and  ostentatious  manner.*  During  her  stay  in  the 
English  capital,  much  of  this  fell  under  the  observation  of  Lady 
Campbell ; to  whom,  as  to  the  great  body  of  the  protestant  com- 
munity, it  was  a just  cause  of  grief,  as  well  as  of  painful  appre- 
hension, though  it  served  to  establish  her  faith  in  the  truth  of  the 
protestant  doctrines.  “ One  time  there”  [in  London,  1685],  says 
she,  “ going  by  a popish  chapel,  with  a very  heavy  heart,  to  see 
such  crowdings  so  avowedly  to  this  idolatrous  worship,  two  or 
three  of  us  went  to  the  door  to  see  the  manner  of  their  worship, 
who  thus  were  deluded,  being  told  we  might,  without  going  in, 
see  them  without  being  seen,  which  proved  otherwise  ; for,  being 
noticed  as  strangers  to  their  foppery,  after  standing  a while  to 
observe  and  wmnder  at  this  abomination,  to  see  it  set  up  in  a 
protestant  country,  we  had  nearly  been  knocked  down  unawares, 
but  narrowly  escaped — from  which  the  hazard  was  seen  of  ven- 
turing upon  curiosity — yet  blessed  be  God  for  this  much  of  in- 
struction, in  seeing  such  a sight  as  helped  to  confirm  us  in  the 
truth  of  the  one  Mediator  between  God  and  man.” 

At  London,  her  intercessions  in  behalf  of  her  husband.  Sir 
Duncan,  met  with  so  little  success,  that,  at  the  very  time  of  her 
being  there,  the  government  were  proceeding  against  him,  in  his 
absence,  to  the  greatest  possible  extremity. — On  the  11th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1685,  when  she  had  been  in  London  a few  weeks,  the 
Scottish  privy  council  ordered  the  king’s  advocate  to  proceed 
against  him,  and  others,  before  the  justiciary  court,  for  joining 
with  Argyll ; and,  previously,  to  examine  witnesses  in  accordance 
Avith  the  king’s  letter.!  On  the  12th  of  October,  he  and  thirty- 
two  Argyllshire  heritors  were  “ cited  on  sixty  days,  for  treason  ;” 
and,  on  the  14th  of  December,  being  called  at  the  justiciary  court 
to  be  forfeited  on  probation,  their  case  was  delayed  to  the  5th  of 
January,  1686.];  On  the  5th  of  January  that  year,  w^hen  she  had 
been  in  London  nearly  five  months,  he  and  the  Argyllshire  heri- 
tors, already  referred  to,  were  tried  on  an  indictment  of  rebellion 
and  treason,  for  their  concern  in  Argyll’s  insurrection  ; and,  their 

* Macaulay’s  History  of  England,  vol.  ii.,  p.  204. 

t Wodrow’s  Histoi-y,  vol.  iv.,  p.  320. 

i Fountainhairs  Decisions,  vol.  i.,  p 370. 

35* 


414 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


case  having  been  remitted  to  a jury,  who  brought  in  a verdict  of 
guilty,  they  were  forfeited  in  life  and  fortune.* 

At  length,  finding  that  all  her  pains  at  court  in  behalf  of  Sir 
Duncan  were  to  very  little  purpose,  she  considered  it  needless 
to  wait  in  London  any  longer.  But,  when  about  to  leave  the 
English  capital,  in  March,  1686,  she  was  in  some  difficulty  wheth- 
er to  embark  for  Holland,  or  to  return  to  Scotland.  Her  affection 
to,  and  sympathy  with  her  distressed  and  endeared  husband,  in- 
clined her  to  join  him  in  Holland  ; but  against  such  an  intention 
her  mother  and  others  endeavored  to  dissuade  her,  judging  it 
would  be  more  conducive  to  his  interest  for  her  to  return  to 
Scotland.  But  at  last  she  resolved  to  go  to  Holland,  convinced 
that  this  was  her  duty,  though  she  confesses  that  it  was  afflicting 
to  her  to  think  of  leaving  in  a strange  land,  and  of  not  accompa- 
nying home,  her  dear  mother,  who  had  been  at  such  pains  and 
toil  for  her ; and  that  “ deference  and  duty  to  one  of  the  best  of 
parents,  made  her  not  complying  with  her  mother’s  demand  very 
affecting.” 

She  accordingly  parted  with  her  mother  in  March  or  April,  1686, 
to  go  to  some  seaport  town  in  England,  which  she  does  not  name, 
whence  she  was  to  embark  for  Holland.  She  was  entirely  alone, 
not  having  even  a servant  with  her,  in  consequence  of  the  sever- 
ity of  the  times.  In  this  place  she  was  detained  by  contrary 
winds  twelve  days,  during  which  time  she  w^s  lodged  in  a board- 
ing establishment,  where  she  knew  no  individual,  “ save  the 
Christian  sweet  woman  to  whose  house  she  had  been  recom- 
mended.” But,  though  removed  from  friends  and  acquaintances, 
she  here  found  favor  among  strangers,  several  providential  in- 
stances of  which  she  refers  to,  without  being  further  particular. 
Interested  in  her  case,  from  the  information  which,  without  her 
knowledge,  he  had  received  concerning  her,  the  master  of  the 
vessel,  unasked,  took  his  wife  along  with  him  to  accompany  her 
during  the  voyage.  Both  of  them  were  extremely  kind  to  her ; 
and  the  weather  being  highly  favorable,  the  voyage  was  the  most 
agreeable  that  could  have  been  desired. 

Landing  in  Holland  at  the  Brill,  she  was  cordially  welcomed 
by  Sir  Duncan,  who  had  come  to  meet  her.  They  went  together 
to  Amsterdam,  where  they  had  the  states’  protection,  which  se- 
cured him  from  the  danger  to  which  he  would  have  been  else- 
where exposed,  in  consequence  of  his  forfeiture  ; and  she  observes 

Fonntainhairs  Decisions,  vol.  i.,  p.  389.  Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  355. 
Fountainhall  says,  that  the  witnesses  against  them  were  the  laird  of  Ellangreg,  &c.t 
though  under  process  of  treason  themselves. 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK. 


415 


that  ‘‘  though  the  place  was  lonely,  and  our  circumstances  not 
without  discouragement,  yet  we  were  not  wholly  debarred  from 
gospel  means,  which  was  several  times  refreshing,  as  the  effect 
of  gracious  condescension  undeserved,  which  many  times  sup- 
ported us.’’  She  adds,  “ In  this  place,  the  Lord  stirred  up  friends 
in  a strange  land,  and  particularly  some  who  are  yet  alive  of  our 
nation,  who  were  most  stedable  and  friendly,  the  sense  of  which 
is  desired  to  be  borne  with  the  greatest  gratitude  ; and  whose  con- 
versation, usefulness,  jpainfulness,  and  ministry  since,  have  many 
times  been  strangely  countenanced  to  somie,  as  doth  leave  a last- 
ing impression  to  the  charging  such  of  mine  as  shall,  as  I hope, 
survive  me,  to  have  the  endearing  sense  of  it,  and,  to  their  power, 
to  requite  with  all  suitable  just  veneration  and  esteem,  leaving  it 
as  my  desire  not  to  be  unmindful  of  it,  since  to  such,  I shall  to 
my  dying  day,  wish  that  the  Lord  may  requite  them  with  his 
special  favor,  and  that  grace  and  peace  may  be  multiplied  to  them.” 

The  persecution  continuing  so  severe  in  Scotland,  as  to  pre- 
sent little  hope  of  Sir  Duncan  being  soon  able  to  reside,  with 
safety,  in  his  native  country.  Lady  Campbell  returned  to  Scot- 
land, in  June,  1686,  with  the  design  of  bringing  over  to  Holland 
their  only  child,  and  of  settling  their  little  affairs,  in  order  to 
their  more  fixed  abode  in  that  land  of  freedom.  Leaving  Sir 
Duncan  for  a time,  “ with  a very  sore  heart,”  she  went  to  Rot- 
terdam for  a Scottish  vessel,  which  was  thence  to  embark  for 
Scotland.  The  winds  being  contrary,  she  was  detained  in  that 
city  for  some  time,  and  on  the  sabbath  she  heard  sermon  in  the 
Scotch  church  by  the  minister  of  the  church,  Mr.  Robert  Flem- 
ing, whom  she  terms  ‘‘•that  great  and  shining  light  in  his  day.” 
So  highly  did  she  estimate  the  public  institutions  of  religion,  that 
her  detention  in  Rotterdam  over  the  sabbath  was  rather  pleasing 
to  her  than  otherwise,  as  it  afforded  her  an  opportunity  of  wor- 
shipping God  in  his  sanctuary,  a privilege  which  she  the  more 
highly  prized  from  the  frequency  with  which  she  was  deprived 
of  it  in  her  native  land.  The  text  from  which  she  heard  Mr. 
Fleming  preach  was  John  xi.  40  : “ Said  I not  unto  thee,  that,  if 
thou  wouldest  believe,  thou  shouldest  see  the  glory  of  God  ?” 

On  the  following  sabbath,  she  was  on  board  the  vessel,  which 
lay  at  anchor  in  the  Brill,  and  heard  two  sermons  preached  by 
Mr.  William^  Moncrieff,  minister  of  Largo,  after  the  revolution'^ 
(a  son  of  the  excellent  Mr.  Alexander  Moncrieff,  minister  of 
Scoonie,  who  had  been  ejected  for  nonconformity  after  the  Res- 

For  some  noticevS  of  Mr.  William  Moncrieff,  see  Dr.  Fraser’s  Life  of  Ebenezer 
Erskine,  p.  209 ; and  his  Life  of  Ralph  Erskine,  p.  146. 


416 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


toration),  who  was  coming  over  to  Scotland  in  the  same  ship^ 
from  these  words  in  Psalm  xlv.  2 : “ Thou  art  fairer  than  the 
sons  of  men ; grace  is  poured  into  thy  lips  by  which  she  was 
much  comforted  and  confirmed.  Next  sabbath,  they  were  tossed 
on  the  ocean  by  a great  storm,  which  drove  them  back  on  the 
coast  of  Holland ; but,  when  the  seamen  were  about  to  cut  the 
mast,  the  tempest  was  allayed.  The  sabbath  after  they  lay  at 
anchor  at  the  Bass,  where  a considerable  number  of  the  presbyte- 
rians  were  then  in  confinement ; and  she  had  a sweet  day  of 
the  sunshine  of  the  gospel,”  Mr.  William  Moncrieff  having 
preached  from  these  words  in  Isaiah  xxxii.  2 ; “ A man  shall  be 
an  hiding-place  from  the  wind,  and  a covert  from  the  tempest ; 
as  rivers  of  water  in  a dry  place,  and  as  the  shadow  of  a great 
rock  in  a weary  land.” 

On  landing  at  Leith,  the  severity  of  the  persecution  suggested 
it  to  her  as  prudent  to  disguise  herself,  to  escape  discovery ; and 
she  came  in  disguise  to  the  house  of  her  dear  friend,  Mr.  Alex- 
ander Moncrieff,  the  ejected  minister  of  Scoonie,  who  was  now 
residing,  with  his  family,  in  Edinburgh.  “ Here,”  says  she,  ‘‘  I 
had  much  kind  welcome  and  sympathy,  from  some  who  are  now 
in  glory,  and  others  of  them  yet  alive,  whose  sympathy  and  un- 
deserved concern  is  desired  to  be  borne  in  mind  with  much  grat- 
itude.” But  any  uncertain  abode  she  had  was  with  her  dear 
mother,  at  Stirling ; of  whose  tender  care  and  affection  for  all 
her  children,  and  for  her  in  particular,  she  speaks,  as  we  have 
seen  before,  in  the  highest  terms.*  She  continued  in  Scotland 
eight  weeks,  during  which  time  she  looked  after  the  worldly 
affairs  of  Sir  Duncan,  which  had  then  a very  ruined-like  and 
discouraging  aspect. 

On  her  way  to  Holland,  with  her  only  child,  she  encountered 
a great  s'torm  at  sea,  and  was  even  in  “ hazard  of  being  swal- 
lowed up  by  the  waves  ;”  under  which,  though  she  was  “ in  an- 
guish of  spirit  through  excessive  fear,”  she  got  her  ‘‘burdens  de- 
volved on  the  blessed  Rock  of  ages.”  On  her  arrival,  she  was 
“ welcomed  with  much  affection  and  kindness”  by  Sir  Duncan  ; 
and  they  took  up  their  residence  in  Rotterdam.  In  this  city,  our 
expatriated  countrymen  enjoyed  singular  religious  advantages. 
Mr.  Thomas  Halyburton,  professor  of  divinity  at  St.  Andrews,! 
who,  in  May,  1685,  when  a boy,  went  with  his  mother  to  Rot- 
terdam, whither  she  was  obliged  to  retire  by  reason  of  the  hot 

* See  p.  414. 

t Lady  Campbell  was  personally  acquainted  with  Halyburton;  and  to  her  his 
Memoirs,  published  after  his  death,  were  dedicated  by  his  widow. 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK. 


417 


persecution,  thus  writes  in  his  memoirs  : “ On  the  Lord’s  day, 
we  had  three  sermons  and  two  lectures  in  the  Scots  church ; on 
Thursday,  a sermon  there  likewise.  On  Tuesday,  one  of  the 
suffering  ministers  by  turns  preached.  There  was  a meeting  for 
prayer  on  Wednesday.  On  Monday  and  Friday  nights,  Mr. 
James  Kirkton  commonly  lectured  in  his  family.  On  Saturday, 
he  catechized  the  children  of  the  Scots  sufferers  who  came  to 
him.”*  Lady  Campbell  speaks  of  ‘Hhe  powerful  and  great 
means  of  which  she  had  a constant  succession,  under  dear  Mr. 
Fleming’s  ministry and  in  her  diary  there  are  many  entries 
containing  notes  of  the  sermons  she  heard  preached,  both  on  or- 
dinary sabbaths,  and  on  sacramental  solemnities,  in  the  Scottish 
church  at  Rotterdam,  by  Mr.  Fleming  and  other  exiled  Scottish 
ministers.  In  addition  to  other  religious  services  in  which  they 
engaged,  it  was  the  custom  of  the  English  and  Scottish  minis- 
ters who  had  taken  shelter  in  Holland  from  the  persecution, 
to  meet  together  once  in  the  week,  or  more  frequently,  for  sol- 
emn prayer,  on  account  of  the  distressing  state  of  affairs  in  their 
native  land.  Lady  Campbell  was  in  the  habit  of  attending  these 
meetings  ; and  she  was  wont  to  tell  a curious  anecdote  of  John 
Howe,  the  celebrated  English  nonconformist  divine,!  strongly 
illustrative  of  the  uncommon  fervor  of  his  devotion.  The  anec- 
dote, which  we  give  in  the  words  of  Wodrow,  is  as  follows  : 
“Mr.  John  Anderson  tells  me  [1726]  he  had  this  account  from 
Lady  Henrietta  Campbell,  of  the  great  Mr.  Howe.  He  was  a 
man  that  was  the  most  mighty  wrestler  in  prayer  she  ever  knew, 
and  gave  one  instance  when  in  Holland,  where  he  was  about 
1686.  The  banished  and  refugee  ministers  met  weekly,  or  of- 
tener,  for  prayer,  where  Lady  Henrietta  used  to  be  present. 
After  some  had  prayed,  Mr.  Howe’s  turn  came.  He  continued 
long,  and  with  such  fervor  that  the  sweat  streamed  down.  Mrs. 
Howe,  his  wife,  knowing  his  manner,  and  that  it  would  not  di- 
vert him  in  time  of  it,  stepped  to  him  gently,  took  off  his  wig, 
and  with  her  napkin  dried  the  sweat,  and  put  on  his  wig  again ! 
This  she  was  obliged  to  do  twice,  if  not  thrice,  and  Mr.  Howe 
seemed  not  to  know  what  was  done  to  him.”J  This  exactly 
corresponds  with  the  description  Dr.  Calamy  gives  of  Howe’s 
gift  of  prayer.  “ He  had  great  copiousness  and  fluency  in  pray- 
er,” says  that  writer ; “ and  the  hearing  him  discharge  that  duty 
upon  particular  sudden  emergencies,  would  have  been  apt  to 

^ Halyburton's  Memoirs,  part  ii.,  chap.  i. 

t Howe  had  gone  abroad  in  1685,  and,  after  travelling  in  various  parts,  settled  at 
Vtrecht  in  1680.  t Wodrow ’e  Analecta,  vol.  iii , p.  303. 


413 


'THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


have  made  the  greatest  admirer  of  stinted  forms  ashamed  of  the 
common  cavils  and  objections  against  that  which  is  usually  call- 
ed extemporary  prayer.’’* 

In  the  middle  of  July,  1688,  Lady  Campbell  was  necessarily 
called  to  the  Hague,  there  to  attend  the  court  several  days  ; hav- 
ing, probably,  been  invited  by  William,  prince  of  Orange,  and 
Princess  Mary,  to  come  along  with  Sir  Duncan,  who  shared  in 
the  counsels  of  William,  in  reference  to  the  contemplated  inva- 
sion of  Britain  ; the  tyranny  of  James  having  now  become  intol- 
erable to  the  great  majority  of  his  subjects,  of  all  parties,  with 
the  exception  of  the  papists.  She  went,  though  “ not  without 
great  reluctancy,  and  fear  of  the  consequences.”  But  “ the  sight 
of  the  splendor  of  that  court,”  excited  in  her  mind  more  agreea- 
ble feelings  than  the  sight  of  the  splendor  of  the  court  of  King 
James  ; it  being  a satisfaction,”  she  remarks,  “ to  see  great 
ones  so  promising,  and  even  blessing-likc  to  the  church  arid  peo- 
ple of  God,  and  that,  hitherto  had  been  such  a support  to  many 
in  distress  and  the  enterprise,  of  the  result  of  which,  from  the 
failure  of  Argyll’s  attempt,  she  was  not  without  apprehensions, 
was  destined  to  have  a more  successful  issue,  being  the  means 
appointed  by  providence  of  delivering  these  lands  from  the  grind- 
ing yoke  of  tyranny  and  persecution. 

Preparations  were  for  some  time  vigorously  made  for  this  un- 
dertaking ; and  when  William’s  intentions  became  known,  they 
met  with  the  cordial  approbation  of  the  great  body  of  the  popula- 
tion in  Holland.  The  English  and  Scottish  refugees  embarked 
in  the  cause  with  ardent  enthusiasm  ; and  the  Dutch  poured  forth 
their  earnest  and  united  prayers  to  Almighty  God  for  its  success. 
Lady  Campbell  thus  describes  the  state  of  public  feeling  in  Hol- 
land : — 

“About  this  time  [September  16,  1688],  the  great  design 
came  to  be  above  board,  of  forces  coming  to  Britain,  with  the 
then  prince  of  Orange,  wherein  the  Lord  did  marvellously  ap- 
pear, in  animating  of  hearts  to  a joint  concurrence  with  this  proj- 
ect, so  that  more  than  ordinary  concern  might  have  been  read  in 
the  generality  of  persons,  who  were  well-wishers  to  the  protest- 
ant  interest ; and  after  preparation  made,  and  joint  supplication 
appointed  to  be  through  all  the  churches  in  the  Seven  Provinces, 
though  there  wanted  not  great  difficulties  to  grapple  with,  be- 
cause of  apparent  danger  and  hazards  ; yet  when  accorded  to, 
and  time  appointed  for  this  undertaking,  there  was  a wonderful 
resoluteness  and  forwardness  that  possessed,  in  general,  all  who 
* Calamy’s  Life  of  Howe,  prefixed  to  the  imperial  octavo  edition  of  his  Works,  p.  1, 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK. 


419 


were  honored  with  this  undertaking,  as  if  the  Lord  had  endued 
them  with  more  than  ordinary  resoluteness  and  courage,  which 
must  be  ascribed  to  his  doing  only,  who  moA^ed  this  design  and 
carried  it  on  for  our  deliverance ; for  which,  O to  be  helped  for 
ever  to  bless  his  name !” 

Sir  Duncan  was  among  those  who  were  appointed  first  to  em- 
bark ; and  they  attended,  in  their  ships,  nearly  three  weeks  be- 
fore the  rest  were  ready.  Previous  to  his  embarkation.  Lady 
Campbell  took  leave  of  him  with  a heavy  heart ; being  now  lei't 
alone  in  a strange  country,  and  not  knowing  but  the  event  might 
be  terrible.  “ Yet,”  says  she,  “ there  being  so  much  at  stake, 
each  appeared  to  add  his  mite  with  more  cheerfulness,  resolu- 
tion, and  submission,  than  another  ; more  than,  without  immediate 
support,  could  have  been  attained.  That  was  made  a time  of 
more  than  ordinary  concern,  and  even  of  liberty  and  enlargedness 
often,  which  was  very  supporting,  and  did  much  sweeten  what 
otherwise  would  with  great  difficulty  have  been  got  over.” 

About  a fortnight  after  the  embarkation  of  their  friends,  she 
and  several  others  having  been  told  that  some  of  the  ships  lying 
at  anchor  were  lost  (a  report  to  which  they  gave  the  more  credit 
from  the  stormy  and  unfavorable  state  of  the  weather),  resolved 
to  visit  their  friends,  though  at  a distance  of  two  days’  journey, 
in  order  to  ascertain  whether  or  not  the  report  was  true  ; that, 
in  case  of  finding  them  safe,  they  might  supply  them  with  fresh 
provisions.  Having  travelled  to' the  neighborhood  of  the  place 
Avhere  the  ships  were  anchored,  they  went  out  to  them  in  a small 
boat ; in  doing  which  their  lives  were  exposed  to  imminent  peril, 
the  boat  having  been  cast  in  among  the  fleet  in  a mighty  storm. 
Missing  Sir  Duncan,  Lady  Campbell  was  greatly  discomposed ; 
but,  on  learning  that  no  harm  had  befallen  him,  her  mind  was 
calmed,  and  she,  with  her  fellow-visiters,  were  safely  brought  to 
land,  notwithstanding  the  severity  of  the  storm.  She  returned 
to  her  dwelling  at  Rotterdam  on  the  Friday,  and  for  some  days 
after  experienced  much  weariness  and  great  indisposition  in 
consequence  of  the  fatigue  and  anxiety  to  which  she  had  been 
subjected. 

At  length,  William’s  fleet,  which  consisted  of  more  than  six 
hundred  vessels,  being  prepared  for  sailing,  he  took  farewell  of 
the  states  of  Holland,  at  a solemn  sitting  they  had  on  the  16th  of 
October,  on  which  day  also  public  prayers  were  offered  up  for 
him  in  all  the  churches  of  the  Hague ; and,  accompanied  by  the 
deputies  of  the  principal  towns  to  his  yacht,  he  arrived  in  the 
evening  at  Helvoetsluys,  and  went  on  board  “ the  Brill” — the 


420 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


name  of  the  vessel  in  which  he  sailed.  On  the  19th  of  October, 
he  put  to  sea  with  his  armament,  and  ‘‘  traversed,  before  a strong 
breeze,  about  half  the  distance  between  the  Dutch  and  English 
coasts.  Then  the  wind  changed,  blew  hard  from  the  west,  and 
swelled  into  a violent  tempest.  The  ships  scattered ; and,  in 
great  distress,  regained  the  shore  of  Holland  as  they  best  might. 
The  Brill  reached  Helvoetsluys  on  the  21st  of  October.”* 

Lady  Campbell  describes  the  magnificent  appearance  of  the 
fleet,  when  about  to  sail ; the  storm  by  which  it  was  compelled 
to  return ; and  the  merciful  providence  observable  even  in  this 
apparent  disaster.  “ About  this  time,  all  the  fleet  were  in  readi- 
ness to  sail,  and  jointly  met  to  attend  King  William  in  this  great 
expedition  to  Britain ; multitudes  being  gathered  together,  on 
steeples,  to  see  this  splendid  sight,  which,  in  rank  and  file,  went 
out  this  evening,  as  was  esteemed  a beautiful  sight  for  grandeur, 
order,  and  comely  fortitude,  in  this  so  great  a design,  that  though 
there  were  some  whose  hearts  were  trembling  with  them,  yet 
the  most  were  rejoicing,  as  if  the  arm  of  man  could  have  accom- 
plished this  marvellous  achievement,  which,  ere  the  next  morn- 
ing, was  seen  to  be  ascribed  to  a higher  hand ; this  night  there 
being  raised  so  formidable  a storm  as  did  wholly  scatter  all  this 
fleet,  so  that  generally  there  were  few  this  night  who  had  any 
concern  but  were  put  to  their  peremptors  and  sad  conclusions, 
fearing  them  to  be  wholly  lost  (the  dear  princess  and  several  be- 
sides sitting  up  the  most  of  the  night),  and  many  were  running 
to  the  coasts  to  observe  what  shipwreck  could  be  discerned.  It 
was  a most  terrible  night,  by  both  sea  and  land.  But  oh,  the 
w'onderful  condescension  of  the  Lord,  who  knew  better  than  we 
did  how  to  deliver,  and  how  to  forward  his  own  work,  that  made 
this  the  means  of  carrying  it  on  ; for,  had  they  gone  forward  to 
their  intended  landing,  they  had  met  with  a great  army  intended 
to  have  routed  them  ! But,  besides,  several  of  those  vessels  hav- 
ing fallen  short  of  provisions,  by  long  attendance,  and  also  they 
not  having  landing-boats,  all  this  made  it  soon  after  a marvellous 
providence  that  they  were  made  by  this  storm  to  return  without 
the  loss  of  one  man,  and  with  the  loss  of  only  one  [vessel],!  and 

Macaulay's  History  of  England,  vol.  ii.,  p]^  476-480. 
t Macaulay  says  that  no  life  was  lost,  and  that  “one  vessel  only  had  been  cast 
away.-' — (Histor/of  England,  vol.  ii.,  p.  477.)  Wodrow  has  the  following  entry  in 
his  Analecta:  “ Mr.  John  Anderson  tells  me  that  he  had  this  from  Lady  Henrietta 
Campbell,  who  was  in  Holland  at  the  time — that  there  were  very  great  measures 
of  a spirit  of  prayer  in  Holland,  at  the  time  of  the  prince  of  Orange’s  coming  off : 
that  it  was  a very  remarkable  mercy  to  his  design  that  he  was  put  back  the  first 
time,  for  the  French  squadron  was  at  sea,  and  would  certainly  have  attacked  him ; 
and,  through  some  mistake,  their  boats,  and  several  other  things  necessary  for  land- 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK. 


421 


some  horses  that  were  thrown  overboard.  The  ship  that  King 
William  was  in  was  among  the  first  that  in  safety  returned,  to 
the  joy  and  rejoicing  of  all  Holland,  and  particularly  those  of 
us  who  had  our  nearest  and  dearest  relations  embarked  with  him, 
all  returning  in  safety  to  Helvoetsluys,  where  their  adode  was 
more  than  twelve  days,  till  they  were  wholly  recruited  again.” 
She  adds  : “ My  dear  husband  was  among  the  first  that  arrived, 
and  gave  account  of  their  safety ; the  seeing  of  whom  so  unex- 
pectedly made  me  almost  at  the  fainting  with  the  surprise  ; which 
was  a pleasant  disappointment,  and  ground  of  thankfulness,  that 
the  Lord  had  been  so  gracious  in  disappointing  the  hopes  of  ene- 
mies and  fears  of  friends.” 

In  the  same  evening  on  which  Sir  Duncan  arrived,  she  went 
with  him  and  some  friends  by  water  to  Helvoetsluys,  where, 
from  the  crowded  state  of  the  place,  they,  like  many  others,  re- 
mained together  in  the  harbor,  in  the  yacht,  for  three  or  four  days, 
till  they  found  accommodation  in  a Dutch  minister’s  house,  in  a 
country  village  near  by,  providing  for  themselves  their  own  pro- 
visions. This  village  contained  at  this  time  many  of  the  Scots 
and  English — not  less,  it  was  computed,  than 'Several  hundreds. 

When  William  and  his  fleet  were  ready  to  put  to  sea  a second 
time,  she  and  others  were  allowed  to  attend  their  friends  to  their 
ships,  ‘‘  which,”  says  she,  “ was  a beautiful  sight  to  see  such  a 
number  gathered  together  for  the  protestant  interest,  in  a time 
when  so  great  an  invasion  was  made  on  it  and  our  properties.” 
On  the  night  on  which  the  fleet  set  sail,  which  was  on  the  even- 
ing of  November  1,  she  was  in  a state  of  no  inconsiderable  agi- 
tation and  anxiety  of  mind,  “ not  only  from  the  hazards  that  ap- 
peared to  those  in  whom  she  was  particularly  interested,  but 
even  from  the  hazard  so  public  and  great  a design  might  be  ex- 
posed unto,  if  the  Lord  did  not  signally  appear  for  them.”  It 
seems  to  have  been  about  this  time  that  she  dreamed  the  dream 
recorded  by  Wodrow,  and  which  we  shall  here  give  in  his  own 
words  : “ Mr.  John  Anderson  of  Kirkmaiden,”  says  he,  tells 
me  that  he  hath  this  from  Lady  Henrietta  Campbell : that  she 
went  with  her  husband  to  the  shore-side,  when  he  embarked  with 
the  prince,  and,  after  she  came  back,  she  slept  but  little  that 
night : that  in  the  morning  after,  she  had  fell  to  a slumber,  and 
had  this  remarkable  dream,  which  she  communicated  to  the 
countess  of  Sutherland  and  the  princess  of  Orange,  who  were 
much  taken  with  it.  She  thought  she  was  at  the  fleet,  and  they 

ing,  were  left  behind  them,  witliont  which  they  could  have  done  little,  though  they 
had  gone  forward." — Vol.  i.,  pp.  280-282. 

. 36 


422 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


came  safe  to  the  coast  of  England,  and  at  the  place  where  they 
landed  there  was  a great,  high,  brazen  wall  before -them.  She 
thought  they  resolved  to  land,  and  when  they  were  endeavoring 
to  get  over  it,  it  fell  down  before  them  in  bibles.  She  could  not 
but  reflect  afterward,  upon  the  success  of  the  expedition,  upon 
this  as  some  emblem  of  that  clear  knowledge,  and  the  settlement 
of  the  gospel,  and  the  use-making  of  the  Scripture  in  opposition 
to  popery,  that  followed  the  happy  revolution.  This  person  is  a 
lady  of  great  piety  and  good  sense,  and  no  visionary.”* 

The  day  after  the  fleet  put  to  sea.  Lady  Campbell,  and  such 
others  as  had  been  taking  farewell  of  their  friends,  journeyed  to 
their  respective  homes,  some  of  them  on  foot  and  some  of  them 
in  wagons,  with  more  hope  as  to  the  issue  than,  since  the  last 
disaster,  they  had  been  able  to  entertain. 

Not  long  after  this,  the  prince  of  Orange’s  undertaking  being 
crowned  with  complete  success,  and  James  being  driven  from 
his  throne,  she  embarked  in  a vessel  bound  for  England,  on  her 
way  to  Scotland,  where  she  and  Sir  Duncan  had  now  the  pros- 
pect of  being  able  to  live  in  peace,  and  of  having  restored  to 
them  their  forfeited  estates.  But,  pleasing  as  was  this  prospect, 
it  was  not  without  a pang  that  she  left  the  land  of  her  exile,  to 
which,  as  the  sanctuary  that  had  sheltered  her  from  persecu- 
tion, her  heart  had  contracted  a grateful  attachment ; and  it  was 
particularly  painful  to  her  feelings  to  part  with  Mr.  Fleming, 
from  whose  ministry  and  social  intercourse  she  had  often  de- 
rived much  comfort  and  edification  ; so  that,  to  use  her  own 
words,  this  parting  was  as  the  child  being  bereaved  of  the 
breast.” 

On  her  arrival  at  London,  she  found  the  cause  of  William  uni- 
versally popular,  and  matters  very  different  from  what  they  were 
in  1685  and  1686,  when,  during  her  abode  in  the  capital,  she 
could  hear  sermon  only  by  stealth,  and  observe  the  Lord’s  sup- 
per only  during  the  darkness  of  the  night,  in  a private  house. 
Now,  dissenters  could  assemble  to  conduct  religious  worship 
in  the  most  public  manner,  without  any  to  make  them  afraid. 
“ There  were  acclamations  and  rejoicing,”  she  says,  even  in 

Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  i.,  pp.  280-282.  Wodrow  says,  in  another  part  of 
the  same  work:  “Mr.  John  Anderson  [May,  1725]  tells  me  several  accounts  of 
Lady  Henrietta  Campbell,  which  1 believe  are  set  down  in  some  of  the  former  vol- 
umes : that  of  her  dream  about  the  prince  of  Oiunge  being  driven  back,  and  the 
wall  falling  down  in  bibles  ; that  about  a fellow  coming  in  to  her  asking  charity  with 
a drawn  dagger ; that  about  the  Lord’s  supplying  her  straits,  after  a sweet  scripture 
was  borne  in  upon  her  by  means  of  the  princess  of  Orange.” — (Ibid.,  vol.  hi.  p.  196.) 
The  last  two  anecdotes  here  referred  to  are  not  recorded  in  the  preceding  volumes 
of  the  Analecta,  as  Wodrow  supposes,  and  are  probably  now  lost. 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK. 


423 


the  streets  for  this  great  deliverance.  And,  oh,  how  refreshing 
was  it  to  find,  that  the  Lord  had  opened  a door  so  marvellously  to 
gospel  privileges,  which,  at  leaving  the  place  [London],  there 
was  so  little  probability  of.  But  what  marvellous  things  are  with 
him  who  is  wonderful  in  counsel,  and  excellent  in  working ! 
And  as  this  work  was  memorable  and  great,  so  it  did  greatly  en- 
dear the  instrument  by  whom  it  was  carried  on.” 

She  speaks,  in  a similar  manner,  of  the  state  of  Scotland  on 
her  reaching  Edinburgh.  ‘‘  Our  arrival  at  Edinburgh  had  its 
own  mixture  of  great  mercy,  and  of  that  crowning  mercy  of  being 
welcomed  with  access  to  the  purity  of  gospel  ordinances  ; being 
the  sweeter  on  our  calling  to  mind  the  restraint  and  difficulty 
that  formerly  had  been  seen  there  in  later  years,  when  made  the 
seat  of  bloodshed  and  oppression.”* 

On  the  triumph  of  the  cause  of  civil  and  religious  freedom,  in 
which  Lady  Campbell  and  Sir  Duncan  had  suffered  so  much, 
they  were  fairly  entitled  to  some  compensation,  and  William, 
when  prince  of  Orange,  having  promised  to  remember  them,  she 
reminded  Lord  Melville,  secretary  of  state  for  Scotland,  of  their 
claims.!  Nor  was  the  government  of  William  backward  to  do 
them  justice,  by  at  least  restoring  to  them  their  ov/n.  Sir  Dun- 
can’s name  appears,  among  hundreds  of  other  names,  in  the  act 
passed  in  the  Scottish  parliament,  July,  1690,  rescinding  the  for- 
feitures and  fines  incurred  by  the  covenanters  on  account  of  their 
principles,  since  the  year  1665,  and  restoring  such  of  them  as 
were  then  alive,  or  their  heirs  and  successors,  to  their  goods, 
fame,  and  worldly  honors,  and  warranting  them  to  use  all  lawful 
means  for  the  recovery  of  the  same.  And,  on  the  8th  of  July 
that  same  year,  the  parliament,  on  hearing  read  Sir  Duncan’s 
petition,  formerly  referred  to,  in  relation  to  the  cruelties,  robber- 
ies, and  oppressions,  committed  on  himself  and  his  tenants,  after 
the  suppression  of  Argyll’s  insurrection,  grant  warrant  for  citing 
the  persons  named  in  the  petition  as  the  perpetrators,  and  the 
representatives  of  such  of  them  as  were  dead,  to  compear  before 
them  within  fifteen  days  after  the  charge,  to  answer  to  the  com- 
plaint, provided  the  parliament  should  be  sitting,  and  otherwise 
to  compear  before  the  commission,  appointed  by  an  act  of  this 
parliament,  entitled  “ Act  for  rescinding  fines  and  forfeitures 
the  hearing  of  the  parties,  and  the  taking  probation  upon  the  points 
of  the  complaint,  being  remitted  to  the  said  commission,  who  were 

^ Here  the  diary  of  Lady  Campbell  closes. 

t See  her  letter  to  that  nobleman,  dated  January  6,  1689,  among  the  Levin  and 
Melville  papers,  p.  44. 


424 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT, 


to  report  to  the  next  session  of  that,  or  a subsequent  parliament.* 
In  the  parliament  of  June,  1693,  the  case  relating  to  jjie  repairing 
the  damages  of  the  baronet,  and  all  other  similar  sufferers,  is  re- 
mitted to  the  lords  of  the  privy  council,  in  order  to  their  sending 
a recommendation  in  reference  to  that  matter  to  his  majesty. f 
After  the  revolution.  Sir  Duncan,  intending  to  reside,  with  his 
family,  at  Lochgair,  proposed,  in  a letter  to  the  synod  of  Argyll, 
dated  4th  August,  1690,  that  a church  should  be  planted  there  ; 
promising  to  dedicate  the  tithes  he  had  about  that  place  as  a part 
of  the  stipend  of  the  minister  to  be  settled,  and  offering  to  build 
a suitable  church  at  his  own  expense.  The  proposal  was  favor- 
ably received,  but,  for  reasons  unknown  to  us,  it  was  never  car- 
ried into  effect.j:  Sir  Duncan  was  a commissioner  for  the  shire 
of  Argyll,  in  the  Scottish  parliament,  for  several  years  after  the 
revolution.  He  died  in  November,  1700,  as  we  learn  from  the 
records  of  the  Scottish  parliament ; for,  on  the  14th  of  that  month, 
a petition  from  the  freeholders  of  Argyllshire  was  read  before  the 
parliament  craving  warrant  to  elect  a commissioner  in  his  room, 
in  respect  of  his  apparently  hopeless  indisposition,  his  own  de- 
mission  being  read  at  the  same  time  ; and,  in  the  proceedings 
of  the  9th  of  the  following  month,  he  is  mentioned  as  “ de- 
ceased.” It  is  a singular  fact,  that,  in  his  last  days.  Sir  Duncan 
embraced  the  popish  religion.  In  the  petition  of  the  freeholders 
of  Argyllshire,  another  reason,  besides  his  sickness  why  they 
crave  warrant  to  elect  a commissioner  to  the  parliament  in  his 
place,  is,  “ that  several  members  of  the  parliament  had  declared 
that  he  owned  himself  to  be  a papist.”  This  was  a source  of  deep 
affliction  to  Lady  Campbell ; for  ‘‘  his  eternal  interest  was  no 
less  coveted  by  her  than  her  own,  a duty  she  ever  thought  due 
to  so  near  and  dear  a relation  as  a husband.”  But,  from  a pas- 
sage in  her  diary,  there  seems  some  reason  to  believe  that,  on 
his  deathbed,  his  sentiments  underwent  an  important  change,  and 
that  he  built  his  hopes  of  heaven  upon  a more  substantial  foun- 
dation than  the  delusions  of  popery.  After  adverting  to  her  so- 
licitude about  the  welfare  of  his  soul,  and  the  enlargement  she 
obtained  in  pleading  at  the  throne  of  grace  in  his  behalf,  she 
adds,  “ who,  I desire  to  hope,  obtained  mercy,  as  a thought  of 
great  consequence  to  some  all  the  days  of  their  life  ; that  in 
a manner  are  deputed,  while  in  the  world,  to  go  to  the  grave 
mourning  for  what  was  wrong  in  him,  and  yet  not  to  mourn  as 
those  that  have  no  hope.” 

* Acts  of  the  parliament  of  Scotland.  t Ibid. 

i New  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland,  Glassary,  Argyllshiie,  p.  694. 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK. 


425 


Sir  Duncan  Avas  succeeded  by  his  son  James,  who  was  thrice 
married,  and  had  by  his  three  wives,  fifteen  children.  Sir  James 
died,  at  an  advanced  age,  in  the  year  1756.^ 

'Lady  Campbell  survived  the  revolution  more  than  thirty  years. 
Whether  during  that  period  she  continued  to  keep  a register  of 
her  spiritual  exercise,  and  of  the  events  of  her  life,  is  uncertain. 
If  she  did  so,  no  such  document  is  now  preserved ; and  little  of 
her  subsequent  history  is  known.  It  is,  however,  certain  that 
she  maintained  a high  reputation  to  the  last  for  Christian  excel- 
lence and  piety.  The  following  anecdote,  recorded  by  Wodrow, 
places  the  strict  integrity  of  her  character  in  a very  interesting  and 
instructive  light:  “ In  the  year  1703,  this  same  Lady  Henrietta 
Campbell  was  with  her  brother,  the  earl  of  Balcarres,  at  his 
house.  He,  with  those  of  his  kidney,  were  then  very  active  in 
addressing  the  queen  and  parliament  for  a toleration,  and  they 
used  all  means  to  procure  a multitude  of  hands  to  their  address  ; 
and  this  was  one  : They  made  many  believe  that  it  was  quite 
Einother  thing  that  they  were  subscribing  than  it  was,  and  read  it 
otherAvise  than  it  was  really  wTitten ; and  by  this  means  got 
many  well-meaning  people  to  subscribe  it.  The  earl  caused  his 
manager  of  the  address  bring  it  to  L[ady]  H[enrietta],  and  told 
her  such  and  such  persons  had  subscribed,  and  pressed  her  much 
to  do  dt ; and  she  said  she  would  subscribe  nothing  till  she  heard 
it.  He  read  it,  and  it  was  pretty  smooth.  She  desired  it  to 
read  herself,  not  from  a jealousy,  but  really  to  ponder  it.  This 
would  by  no  means  be  granted,  which  made  her  suspect.  She 
found  means  to  get  a sight  of  the  address,  and  she  found  it  perfectly 
another  thing  than  was  read  to  her.  She  reproached  her  brother 
Avith  this  base  dealing  with  poor  people.  He  begged  she  would 
not  discover,  but  she  told  him,  unless  he  would  stop  it  and  tear 
it,  she  would ; and,  upon  his  refusal,  she  acquainted  the  minister 
of  the  place  with  it,  Avho,  upon  the  sabbath,  did  very  fully  lay 
out  the  cheat  to  the  people ; who  next  came  in  and  complained 
that  they  were  abused,  and  threatened  to  send  a counter-address, 
with  an  account  of  their  treatment  to  the  parliament.  This,  with 
the  thing’s'  spreading,  marred  that  address  effectually  ; and  bred 
a great  breach  between  the  lady  and  her  brother,  for  two  or  three 
years.”! 

Lady  Campbell  died  about  1721.  Mr.  John  Anderson,  minis- 
ter of  Kirkmaiden,  in  a letter  to  Wodrow,  dated  October  24th 
that  year,  formerly  quoted,^  alludes  to  her  as  being  then  dead ; 

Douglas’s  Baronage  of  Scotland,  p.  62. 
t Wodrow ’s  Analecta,  vol.  i.,  pp.  280-282. 

36^ 


t See  p.  395. 


426 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


and  her  death,  it  is  probable,  took  place  not  long  before,  for  Wod- 
row,  when  the  second  volume  of  his  “ History  of  the  Sufferings 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland”  was  going  through  the  press,  which 
was  in  the  same  year,  speaks  of  her,  in  referring  to  the  letter 
which  the  earl  of  Argyll  wrote  to  her  on  the  day  of  his  execu- 
tion, as  then  alive.* 

The  particulars  relating  to  her  last  sickness  not  being  preserved, 
we  have  not  the  satisfaction  of  receiving,  from  her  dying  lips,  a 
testimony  to  the  truth  and  importance  of  religion  ; but  what  is  of 
greater  practical  value,  we  have  the  memorials  of  the  Christian 
virtues  and  graces  which  she  exemplified.  The  preceding  sketch 
has  been  almost  confined  to  the  first  thirty  or  thirty-two  years  of 
her  life,  there  being  few  materials  for  illustrating  her  subsequent 
history.  But  what  has  passed  under  our  notice  during  that  pe- 
riod exhibits,  besides  some  variety  of  incident,  many  features  of 
Christian  excellence  worthy  of  imitation.  The  depth  and  fervor 
of  her  early  piety  can  not  fail  to  have  struck  the  reader ; and  the 
maturity  which  the  Christian  graces  attained  in  her  more  ad- 
vanced years,  fulfilled  the  promising  appearances  of  her  child- 
hood and  youth.  Casting  in  her  lot,  in  the  morning  of  her  days, 
with  the  persecuted  covenanters,  she  suffered  not  a little  in  the 
cause  of  the  civil  and  religious  freedom  of  her  country ; but  un- 
der all  her  sufferiiigs  on  that  account  which  were  endured  in  the 
prime  of  life,  between  .the  twentieth  and  the  thirtieth  years  of 
her  age,  when  she  might  naturally  have  expected  the  largest 
share  of  her  earthly  felicity,  she  displayed  a patient  continuance 
in  well-doing,  a faith  in  God’s  love,  and  a dependence  on  his 
providence,  which  bore  testimony  to  the  sincerity  and  the  strength 
of  her  piety.  Inspired  with  supreme  love  to  God,  she  devoted 
much  of  her  time  to  secret  prayer,  and  the  study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. On  the  sabbath,  for  which  she  had  a high  veneration,  she 
accounted  it  an  invaluable  privilege  to  listen  to  the  lessons  of 
piety  delivered  by  the  ministers  of  the  Word  ; and  when  at  any 
time  deprive^  of  this  privilege,  she  spent  the  hours  of  that  sa- 
cred day  in  the  secret  exercises  of  religion,  in  reading  the  Scrip- 
tures, in  spiritual  meditation,  and  in  prayer.  The  observance 
of  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord’s  supper  was  to  her  the  most  de- 
lightful service  in  which  she  could  engage.  Careful  in  observing 
Divine  providence,  she  contemplated  everything  in  her  lot — all 
her  trials,  as  well  as  all  her  mercies — as  proceeding  from  God  ; 
and,  having  chosen  him  as  her  portion,  she  was  satisfied  with 
"he  wisdom  of  her  choice,  all  the  things  of  the  world,  when  com- 
* VVodrow’s  History,,  vol.  iv  , p.  304. 


LADY  CAMPBELL  OF  AUCHINBRECK. 


427 


pared  with  him,  sinking,  in  her  estimation,  into  utter  insignifi- 
cance. In  every  relation  of  life,  whether  as  a daughter,  a sister, 
a wife,  or  a mother,  she  acted  an.  exemplary  part.  Warm  and 
generous  in  her  affections,  she  was  a sincere  and  attached  friend. 
Amiable  in  her  dispositions,  and  engaging  in  her  manners,  she 
almost  universally  met  with  kind  attentions  among  strangers,  as 
well  as  among  friends  ; and  singularly  grateful  in  her  temper  of 
mind,  the  acts  of  kindness  shown  to  her  under  her  sufferings  and 
wanderings  she  never  forgot.  They  were  preserved  in  her  mem- 
ory as  if  engraven  upon  adamant ; and  Vv^e  find  her  leaving  it,  as 
a dying  injunction  upon  those  nearest  and  dearest  to  her  whom 
she  left  behind,  to  remember  and  reward  such  proofs  of  sympa- 
thy and  friendship  ; nor  is  it  unimportant  to  observe,  how  her 
gratitude  to  man  was  mingled  with  her  gratitude  to  God  ; for,  while 
she  refers  with  delight  to  the  acts  of  kindness  shown  to  her  by 
rrian  in  the  time  of  her  affliction,  she  never  fails  to  trace  every  such 
act  of  kindness  to  God,  who,  as  she  believed,  disposed  the  hearts 
of  men  to  pity  and  to  befriend  her.  Such  are  some  of  the  lead- 
ing features  of  the  character  of  this  lady,  on  whom  God  had  con- 
ferred such  abundant  grace,  and  who  is  so  well  entitled  to  a place 
among  those  pious  women  of  Scotland,  who,  in  the  face  of  per- 
secution, kept  the  commandment  of  God,  and  the  testimony  of 
Jesus  Christ. 


428 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


GRIS;ELL  HUME, 

LADY  BAILLIE  OF  JERVISWOOD.* 

Grisell  Hume  was  born  at  Redbraes  Castle,!  in  Berwick- 
shire, December  25,  1665.  Her  father.  Sir  Patrick  Hnme  (after 
the  revolution,  first  earl  of  Marchmont),  was  eighth  baron  of 
Polwarth  of  his  name,  and  was  descended  from  a younger  branch 
of  the  illustrious  house  of  Dunbar,  earls  of  March,  whose  origin  is 
traced  to  the  Saxon  kings  of  England,  and  to  princes  or  earls  in 
Northumberland.  Her  mother  was  Grisell  Kerr,  daughter  of 
Sir  Thomas  Kerr  of  Cavers.  She  was  the  eldest  of  eighteen 
children,  whom  Lady  Hume  bore  to  her  husband,  except  two, 

* In  drawing-  up  this  sketch,  we  are  chiefly  indebted  to  the  Memoirs  of  Lady 
Baillie,  written  by  her  eldest  daughter,  Grisell,  Lady  Murray,  of  Stanhope.  These, 
with  Memoirs  of  the  Honorable  George  Baillie,  by  the  same  lady,  were  printed  in 
1822,  under  the  editorship  of  Thomas  Thomson,  Esq.,  from  the  original  MS.,  which 
has  been  carefully  preserved  in  the  family  of  Jerviswood.  These  memorials  con- 
sist partly  of  information  which  she  had  received  from  her  mother,  who  had  a prin- 
cipal share  in  all  that  is  related,  and  partly  of  what  she  had  observed  with  her  own 
eye.  The  tenderness  of  filial  piety,  the  ingenuous  truthfulness,  the  fine  feeling,  and 
agreeable  good-humor  with  which  they  are  wu'itten ; and  the  variety  of  interesting 
traits  of  Scottish  simplicity  and  homeliness  of  character,  which  they  contain,  render 
the  narrative  extremely  engaging.  A celebrated  authoress,  Joanna  Baillie,  the  mod- 
ern dramatist  of  “ The  Passions,”  from  the  enthusiastic  admiration  of  Lady  Baillie, 
with  which  these  memoirs  inspired  her,  has  adopted  her  as  a heroine  of  the  highest 
order  in  the  scale  of  female  excellence,  in  her  “ Metrical  Legends  of  Exalted  Char- 
acters.” Lady  Murray,  the  authoress  of  these  memoirs,  was  born  in  1693.  In  the 
month  of  August,  1710,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  she  was  married  at  Edinburgh  to 
Mr.  Alexander  Murray,  the  son  and  heir  of  Sir  David  Murray  of  Stanhope,  baronet, 
by  Lady  Anne  Bruce,  daughter  of  Alexander,  earl  of  Kincardine.  But  this  mar- 
riage proved  unfortunate.  Mr.  Murray’s  appearance  and  manners  in  common  so- 
ciety,” says  Mr.  Thomson,  “are  said  to  have  been  prepossessing  and  specious*, 
but  it  was  soon  discovered  that,  under  a pleasing  exterior,  there  lurked  a dark,  moody, 
and  ferocious  temper  ; or  rather,  perhaps,  what  ought  to  be  described  as  a certain 
degree  of  constitutional  insanity,  which  discolored  all  his  views  of  the  conduct  and 
character  of  those  about  him,  and  made  him  the  helpless  victim  of  the  most  ground- 
less suspicions,  and  the  most  agonizing  and  uncontrollable  passions.  The  parents 
of  the  young  lady  were,  at  length,  driven  to  the  painful  necessity  of  instituting  a 
“ process  of  separation,”  on  the  ground  that  his  wife  was  not  in  safety  to  live  with 
him.  To  this  proceeding,  Mr.  Murray,  made  the  most  obstinate  resistance,  and  in- 
stituted a “ counter  process  of  adherence ;”  but  a formal  “ decree  of  separation”  was 
at  length  pronounced  by  the  commissary  court  of  Edinburgh,  on  the  5th  of  March, 
1714,  Lady  Murray  continued  afterward  to  live  in  her  father’s  family.  Being  the 
eldest  daughter,  and  her  only  brother  having  died  in  early  infancy,  she  succeeded 
to  her  father’s  estates;  but,  after  her  mother’s  death,  she  lived  in  family  with  her 
sister.  Lady  Binning,  to  whom,  and  to  her  second  son,  the  estates  were  destined, 
on  the  death  of  the  eldest  sister  without  children.  She  died  in  June,  1759. 

t The  modern  name  is  Marchmont  house,  and  the  present  building  is  modem.  It 
is  embosomed  in  rich  plantations ; is  a plain,  but  stately  mansion,  and  is  approached 
by  one  of  the  noblest  avenues  in  the  kingdom.  The  rooms  contain  an  extensive 
collection  of  family  and  historical  pictures. 


LADY  BAILLIE  OF  JERVISWOOD. 


429 


who  died  in  infancy.  She  was  named  after  her  mother,  and, 
being  from  infancy  an  interesting  child,  was  the  darling  and  com- 
fort of  her  parents. 

Her  father,  who  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished  patriots  and 
statesmen  of  his  day,  suffered  not  a little  for  his  zealous  appear- 
ances in  the  cause  of  religion  and  liberty.  In  1674,  he  went  up 
to  London  with  the  duke  of  Hamilton  and  others,  to  lay  the  griev- 
ances the  nation  suffered  from  the  duke  of  Lauderdale’s  adminis- 
tration, before  the  king.  The  next  year,  the  privy  council  hav- 
ing appointed  garrisons  to  be  placed  in  the  houses  of  certain 
noblemen  and  gentlemen,  in  several  counties,  for  the  purpose  of 
suppressing  conventicles,  and  having  ordained  that  the  respec- 
tive counties  should  furnish  them  with  meal,  pots,  pans,  and  can- 
dle, several  shires  refused  to  contribute  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  garrisons,  and  Sir  Patrick  Hume  was  commissioned  from  the 
shire  of  Merse  to  complain  to  the  council.  Having  remonstrated 
against  this  imposition  as  contrary  to  law,  and  appealed  to  the 
court  of  session  for  redress,  he  was  imprisoned  in  September 
that  year.  In  a letter  to  the  council,  dated  5th  of  October,  his 
majesty  approves  of  their  imprisoning  Polwarth,  “ as  being  a 
factious  person,”  and  commands  them  to  declare  him  incapable 
of  public  trust,  and  to  send  him  close  prisoner  to  Stirling  castle, 
till  further  orders.  Sir  Patrick  continued  in  prison  for  many 
months.  The  king’s  letter,  giving  orders  for  his  being  set  at  lib- 
erty, though  still  continuing  him  incapable  of  all  public  trust,  is 
dated  February  24,  1676.* 

Lady  Grisell  thus  began  her  life  during  the  troubles  of  the 
persecution.  At  the  time  of  her  father’s  liberation  from  prison, 
she  was  little  more  than  ten  years  of  age  ; and,  soon  after,  those 
romantic  incidents  occur  in  her  life  which  have  given  her  an 
historical  celebrity.  From  the  tact  and  activity  with  which,  far 
beyond  one  of  her  years,  she  accomplished  whatever  she  was 
intrusted  with,  her  parents  sent  her  on  confidential  missions, 
which  she  executed  with  singular  fidelity  and  success.  In  the 
summer  of  that  same  year,  when  Robert  Baillie  of  Jerviswood, 
the  early  and  intimate  friend  of  her  father,  was  imprisoned!  for 
rescuing  his  brother-in-law,  Mr.  James  Kirkton,  from  a wicked 
persecutor.  Captain  William  Carstairs,  she  was  sent  by  her  father 
from  his  country-house  to  Edinburgh,^  a long  road,  to  try  if,  from 

Wodrow’s  History,  voL  ii.,  pp.  295,  357  ; Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  ii.,  p.  179; 
Row’s  Life  of  Robert  Blair,  pp.  562,  565. 

t He  was  imprisoned  in  June,  1676,  and  was  kept  a prisoner  for  four  months, 
t Lady  Murray  says  that  her  mother,  when  sent  on  this  errand,  was  at  the  age 
af  twelve.’’  But,  from  comparing  the  date  of  her  birth  with  the  time  of  Baillie’s 


430 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


her  age,  she  could  get  admittance  into  the  prison  unsuspected, 
and  slip  a letter  of  information  and  advice  into  his  hand,  and 
bring  back  from  him  what  intelligence  she  could.  Proceeding 
on  her  journey  to  the  capital,  she  succeeded  in  getting  access  to 
Baillie,  though  we  are  not  informed  in  what  way.  The  authoress 
of  “ Metrical  Legends  of  Exalted  Characters”  has  imagined  the 
maimer  in  which  the  little  messenger  got  into  Baillie’s  cell,  and 
the  circumstances  of  their  interview.  She  describes  Baillie, 
while  sitting  in  his  dark  dungeon,  sad  and  lonely,  as  hearing 
something  moving  softly  toward  him,  and  as  inquiring,  on  observ- 
ing that  it  quickly  stood  by  his  side — 

“ ‘ Such  sense  in  eyes,  so  simply  mild  ! 

Is  it  a woman  or  a child  ? 

Who  art  thou,  damsel  sweet  ? — are  not  mine  eyes  beguiled  V ” 

To  which  the  visitant  answers  : — 

“ ‘ No — from  the  Redbraes’  tower  I come  ; 

My  father  is  Sir  Patrick  Hume ; 

And  he  has  sent  me  for  thy  good, 

His  dearly-honored  Jerviswood. 

Long  have  I round  these  walls  been  straying. 

As  it’  with  other  children  playing; 

Long  near  the  gate  have  kept  my  watch 
The  sentry’s  changing  time  to  catch. 

With  stealthy  steps  1 gained  the  shade 
By  the  close-winding  staircase  made, 

And  when  the  surly  turnkey  entered, 

But  little  dreaming  in  his  mind 
Who  followed  him  so  close  behind, 

Into  this  darkened  cell,  with  beating  heart,  I ventured.’  ” 

The  legend  then  describes  her  as  taking  from  her  breast  a letter 
from  her  father,  and  with  “ an  eager,  joyful  look,”  presenting  it 
to  Baillie  ; who,  after  reading  it,  and  shedding  blessings  on  her 
youthful  head,  gave  her  his  answer  to  her  father’s  secret  note, 
and  then  inquired  for  those  she  left  behind — 

“ In  Redbraes’  tower,  her  native  dwelling, 

And  set  her  artless  tongue  a-telling, 

Which  urchin  dear  had  tallest  grown. 

And  which  the  greatest  learning  shown, 

Of  lesson,  sermon,  psalm,  or  note. 

And  sabhath  questions  learned  by  rote, 

And  merry  tricks  and  gambols  played 
By  evening  fire,  and  forfeits  paid.” 

But  in  whatever  way  young  Grisell  got  access  to  Baillie,  and 
whatever  were  the  circumstances  of  their  interview,  she  success- 
fully accomplished  the  purpose  of  her  mission.  It  is  also  to  be 

imprisonment,  it  appears  that  she  was  then  only  between  ten  and  eleven  years  of 
age. 


LADY  BAILLIE  OF  JERVISWOOD. 


431 


observed  that  it  was  in  the  prison, on  this  occasion,  that  she  first 
saw  Mr.  Baillie’s  son,  and  that  then  and  there  originated  that 
intimacy  and  attachment  between  him  and  her  which  afterward 
issued  in  their  happy  marriage.  From  that  time,  Grisell,  who 
was  the  favorite  of  her  parents  before,  became  still  more  endeared 
to  them ; a*nd,  reposing  in  her  great  confidence,  they  employed 
her  on  many  adventures  which,  in  those  times,  would  have  been 
perilous  to  persons  more  advanced  in  years,  but  in  which,  by  her 
finesse  and  presence  of  mind,  aided  by  her  tender  age,  which 
prevented  suspicion,  she  completely  succeeded. 

About  the  month  of  July,  1678,  her  father  was  again  made  pris- 
oner in  the  tolbooth  of  Edinburgh.*  But  a petition  having  been 
presented  to  the  king  in  his  behalf,  praying  that,  in  consequence 
of  his  indisposition,  he  might  be  removed  to  a more  healthy 
prison,  the  place  of  his  imprisonment  was  soon  changed  from 
Edinburgh  tolbooth  to  Dumbarton  castle,  in  obedience  to  a letter 
from  the  king  to  the  council,  dated  4th  of  September.  He  con- 
tinued there  a close  prisoner  for  at  least  nearly  a year,  when  he 
was  liberated  on  the  intercession  of  his  English  relation,  and 
especially  of  the  countess  of  Northumberland.  The  order  for  his 
liberation,  which  is  contained  in  a letter  from  the  king  to  the 
privy  council,  dated  July  17,  1679,t  states  that  “he  had  been 
imprisoned  for  reasons  known  to  his  majesty,  and  tending  to 
secure  the  public  peace  ; and,”  it  is  added,  “ now  the  occasions 
of  suspicion  and  public  jealousy  being  over,  he  is  ordered  to  be 
liberate. — “For  an  imprisonment  under  such  motives,”  it  has 
been  justly  observed,  “ his  reputation  is  not  likely  to  suffer  in  the 
eyes  of  posterity ; but  if  -that  posterity  contemplates  the  picture 
of  the  tyranny  which  weighed  upon  Scotland  during  the  duke  of 
Lauderdale’s  administration,  and  to  which  there  is  no  parallel  in 
the  English  history  of  that  day,  it  will  do  justice  to  the  patriotism 
and  public  virtue  which  rose  up  in  opposition  to  it.”l| 

* The  exact  date  of  his  second  imprisonment  is  uncertain ; but,  that  it  was  about 
the  time  stated  in  the  text,  appears  from  the  following  sentence  in  “ The  Grievances 
of  Lauderdale’s  Administration,”  which  were  in  circulation  about  June,  1679  (Wod- 
row’s  History,  vol.  hi.,  p.  168) : “And  Sir  Patrick  Hume  hath  been  now  almost  a 
year  imprisoned  a second  time,  and  nothing  is  yet  laid  to  his  charge.” — Ibid.,  vol. 
iii.,  p.  161. 

t Lady  Murray  says  that  he  “was  confined  fifteen  months  in  Dumbarton  castle.” 
She  must  either  be  mistaken  as  to  the  exact  period  of  his  imprisonment,  or  he  must 
have  remained  in  prison  some  months  after  the  king  issued  orders  for  his  liberation. 
She  adds,  “ and  was  then  set  at  liberty,  without  ever  being  told  for  what  he  was 
put  up  all  that  time.  ’ 

t Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  481 ; and  vol.  iii.,  p.  161.  The  Marchmont  Papers, 
edited  by  the  Right  Honorable  Sir  George  Henry  Rose,  preface. 

II  The  Marchmont  Papers,  preface. 


432 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


During  the  time  that  her  father  was  a prisoner  in  Edinburgh 
tolbooth  and  in  Dumbarton  castle,  young  Grisell  made  repeated 
journeys  from  Berwickshire  to  the  place  of  his  confinement,  to 
carry  to  him  intelligence,  or  to  administer  to  him  comfort.  On 
such  errands  she  always  gladly  went,  when  sent  by  her  mother, 
whom  affliction  and  care  of  the  younger  children  kept  at  home, 
and  who,  besides,  was  less  able  to  make  journeys.  Her  mother, 
too,  would  have  been  more  narrowly  watched  and  more  readily 
suspected  than  one  of  her  tender  age. 

When,  in  October,  1683,  her  father’s  friend  Robert  Baillie  was 
apprehended  in  London,  and  sent  down  a prisoner  to  Scotland, 
her  father,  who  was  implicated  in  the  same  patriotic  measures 
for  preventing  a popish  succession  to  the  British  throne,  for  which 
Baillie  was  arrested,  had  too  good  ground  to  be  alarmed  for  his 
own  personal  safety.  But  he  was  allowed,  it  would  appear,  to 
remain  undisturbed  in  his  own  house  till  the  month  of  September 
next  year,  when  orders  were  issued  by  the  government  for  his 
apprehension,  and  a party  of  troops  had  eome  to  his  house  on 
two  different  occasions  for  that  purpose,  though  they  failed  in 
getting  hold  of  him.  Upon  this,  he  found  it  necessary  to  with- 
draw from  home,  and  to  keep  himself  in  concealment,  till  he  got 
an  opportunity  of  going  over  to  the  continent.*  The  spot  to 
which  he  betook  himself  for  shelter  was  the  family  burying-place, 
a vault  under  ground  at  Polwarth  church,  at  the  distance  of  a 
mile  from  the  house.  Where  he  was,  no  person  knew  but  Lady 
Hume,  Grisell,  and  one  man,  James  Winter,  a carpenter,  who 
used  to  work  in  the  house,  and  lived  a mile  off,  whom  they  deemed 
trustworthy,  and  of  whose  fidelity  they  were  not  disappointed. 
The  frequent  examinations  to  which  servants  were  at  that  time 
subjected,  and  the  oaths  by  which  it  was  attempted  to  extort  dis- 
coveries from  them,  made  Grisell  and  her  mother  afraid  to  com- 
mit the  secret  to  any  of  them.  By  the  assistance  of  James  Win- 

^ Lady  Murray  says  : “ After  persecution  began  afresh,  and  my  grandfather  Bail- 
lie  [wasj  again  in  prison,  her  [Grisell’s]  father  thought  it  necessary  to  keep  con- 
cealed ; and  soon  found  he  had  too  good  reason  for  so  doing ; parties  being  con- 
tinually sent  out  in  search  of  him,  and  often  to  his  own  house,  to  the  terror  of  all  in 
it.”  Sir  Patrick  himself,  in  his  Narrative  of  Argyll’s  Expedition  in  1685,  says : “ In 
the  month  of  September  last  [1684],  when  order  was  given  to  apprehend  me,  and 
my  house  was  twice  searched  by  troops  sent  for  that  end,  so  as  I was  obliged  to 
abscond  till  I got  a convenient  way  of  getting  off  the  isle,  you  know  how  it  was 
with  me  and  the  manner  of  my  living.” — (The  Marchmont  Papers,  vol.  iii.,  p.  2.) 

Hume  of  Polwarth,”  says  Pountainhall,  “ being  advertised  he  was  to  be  seized, 
fled,  and  after  search,  not  being  found,  his  lady  told  he  had  lain  two  years  in  prison, 
on  a caprice  of  Lauderdale’s,  and  so  he  did  not  desire  to  run  that  risk  of  new  again, 
not  having  a body  to  endure  it ; and  it  was  Lauderdale’s  bringing  down  the  high- 
land host  in  1678  which  occasioned  Polwarth  speaking  against  him,  September  IL 
1684.” — Fountainhall’s  Notes,  p.  104. 


LADY  BAILLIE  OF  JERVISWOOD. 


433 


ter,  they  got  a bed  and  bedclothes  carried  during  the  night  to  his 
hiding-place  ; and  there  he  was  concealed  for  a month,  during 
which  time  the  only  light  he  had  was  that  admitted  by  means  of 
a chink  at  one  end,  through  which  nobody  on  the  outside  could 
see  who  or  what  was  in  the  interior.  While  he  abode  in  this 
receptacle  of  the  dead,  Grisell,  with  the  most  exemplary  filial 
tenderness,  and  with  the  most  vigilant  precaution,  ministered  to 
nis  temporal  wants  and  comfort.  Regularly  at  midnight,  when 
men  were  sunk  in  sleep,  she  went  alone  to  this  dreary  vault,  car- 
rying to  him  a supply  of  food  and  drink ; and,  to  bear  him  com- 
pany, she  stayed  as  long  as  she  could,  taking  care  to  get  home 
before  day,  to  prevent  discovery.*  She  had  a great  deal  of  hu- 
mor in  telling  a story,  and  during  her  stay  she  took  a delight  in 
telling  him  (nor  was  he  less  delighted  in  hearing  her  tell  him) 
such  incidents  at  home  as  had  amused  herself  and  the  rest  of  the 
family ; and  these  were  often  the  cause  of  much  mirth  and  laugh- 
ter to  them  both.  At  that  time  she  had  a great  terror  for  a church- 
yard, especially  in  the  dark,  as  is  not  uncommon  in  young  per- 
sons even  at  the  age  of  eighteen  or  nineteen,  from  the  idle  nursery 
stories  they  have  heard  in  childhood  ; but  her  affectionate  con- 
cern for  her  father  made  her  stumble  over  the  graves  every  night 
alone,  fearless  of  everything  but  soldiers  and  parties  in  search  of 
him ; and  such  was  her  dread  of  them,  that  the  least  noise  or 
motion  of  a leaf  made  her  tremble.  The  manse  of  the  minister 
of  the  parish  was  near  the  church  ; arid  the  first  night  she  went 
on  her  pious  errand,  his  dogs  (of  which  he  seems  to  have  had 
more  than  one,  and  which,  as  has  been  observed,  were  evidently 
in  favor  of  the  arbitrary  party)  continued  to  bark  with  such  inces- 
sant violence  as  put  her  into  the  utmost  dread  of  a discovery.  In 
this  emergency,  necessity,  which  is  said  to  be  fruitful  in  inven- 
tion, suggested  it  to  her  mother  that  the  most  likely  means  of 
getting  quit  of  this  cause  of  annoyance  was  to  endeavor,  if  pos- 
sible, to  make  the  minister  believe  that  his  dogs  were  mad,  and 
that  therefore  it  was  dangerous  to  retain  them.  She  accordingly 
sent  for  the  minister  next  day,  and  succeeding  in  producing  on  his 
mind  the  intended  conviction,  got  him  to  hang  them  all ; and  thus 
this  amiable  and  affectionate  daughter  continued  her  midnight 
walks  without  further  molestation. 

There  was  also  some  difficulty  in  getting  food  to  carry  to  her 

* In  the  inscription  upon  her  monument,  given  at  the  close  of  this  sketch,  it  is  said 
that  when  Grisell  thus  ministered  to  her  father,  she  was  “ an  infant/'  This  is  clearly 
a mistake.  From  comparing  the  date  of  her  birth  with  the  time  when  her  father 
was  concealed  in  the  family  burying-vault,  which  was  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year 
1684,  it  is  evident  that  she  was  then  a girl  of  nearly  nineteen  years  of  age. 

37 


434 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


father  without  exciting  the  suspicions  of  the  servants  ; and  the 
only  way  in  which  she  got  it,  was  by  stealing  off  her  plate,  at 
dinner,  into  her  lap,  a portion  of  the  meat  which  had  been  pre- 
pared. Many  an  amusing  story  she  was  wont  to  tell  her  own 
children,  after  the  days  of  the  persecution  had  closed,  about  this, 
and  other  things  of  the  like  nature.*  Her  father  liked  sheep’s 
head,  and,  while  the  children  were  eating  their  broth,  she  had 
succeeded  in  conveying,  by  stealth,  the  most  part  of  one  into  her 
lap.  When  her  brother,  Alexander,!  then  a boy  of  about  nine 
years  of  age,  had  disposed  of  his  broth,  the  little  fellow  looked 
up  in  the  hope  of  getting  something  else  to  eat,  and  perceiving, 
with  astonishment,  the  empty  plate,  exclaimed,  “ Mother,  will 
you  look  at  Grisell : while  we  have  been  eating  our  broth,  she 
has  eat  up  the  whole  sheep’s  head !”  This  occasioned  much 
mirth  among  them  all,  and  when  Grisell  archly  told  her  father 
the  story  the  next  time  she  went  out  to  him,  he  was  greatly 
amused  by  it,  and  desired  that  Sandy  might  have  a share  of  the 
next  sheep’s  head.  During  all  this  time,  having  a happy  natural 
temperament  of  mind,  and  being  under  the  influence  of  genuine 
religion.  Sir  Patrick  showed  the  same  constant  composure  and 
cheerfulness  of  mind  which  he  continued  to  possess  to  the  close 
of  life.  He  sought  and  found  comfort  from  the  v/ord  of  God,  and 
especially  from  the  Psalms  of  David,  which,  containing  a rich 
treasure  of  heavenly  instruction  and  consolation,  have  often  been 
the  means  of  sustaining  and  encouraging  good  men  in  the  time 
of  trial.  He  had  no  light  to  read  by,  but,  having  previously  com- 
mitted to  memory  Buchanan’s  Latin  version  of  the  Psalms,  he 
beguiled  the  weary  hours  of  his  confinement,  and  derived  much 

“ I should  never  have  done,”  says  Lady  Murray,  “if  I related,  or  could  remem- 
ber all  the  particulars  I have  lieard  my  mother  tell  of  those  times — a subject  she 
never  tired  of.” 

t Alexander  was  born  in  1075.  Like  his  mother,  brothers,  and  sisters,  he  shared 
his  father's  exile  in  Holland.  After  the  revolution,  having  married  the  daughter 
and  heiress  of  Sir  George  Campbell,  of  Cessnock,  whose  estate  was  entailed  upon 
her  and  her  heirs,  he  was  distinguished  as  Sir  Alexander  Campbell,  of  Cessnock,  till 
the  death  of  his  eldest  brother,  Patrick,  in  1710,  who,  though  twice  married,  had 
no  issue,  when  he  became  Lord  Pplwarth.  Plaving  studied  the  law,  he  entered  on 
the  practice  of  it  as  an  advocate,  and  became  a lord  ofsession  before  he  was  thirty  years 
of  age.  He  was  a privy  councillor,  and  a lord  ofthe  exchequer  in  Scotland,  and  was  a 
member  of  parliament,  first  for  Kirkw^'aH,  and  then  for  Berwickshire.  On  the  death 
of  his  father,  he  became  earl  of  Marchmont,  and  died  in  January.  1740.  In  his  reli- 
gious principles  and  habits,  he  resembled  his  father.  “ I find  in  his  Bible,”  says 
Sir  George  H.  Rose,  “ in  his  own  handwriting,  his  name,  the  date  of  ‘ Cambray,  1st 
May,  1725,’  and  the  following  note  : ‘ To  be  read  thrice  a year;  first,  1st  January, 
second,  1st  May  ; third,  1st  September and  the  memorandum  to  do  the  thing  is 
accompanied  by  the  plan  for  doing  it,  by  a division  of  the  Scriptures  into  portions, 
marked  out  by  him,  through  the  w'hole  of  the  volume,  for  every  morning  and  even- 
ing of  each  period  of  four  months.” — The  Marchmont  Papers,  vol.  i.,  Preface,  pp. 
xliii.,  xliv. 


LADY  BAILLIE  OF  JERVISWOOD. 


435 


comfort  and  enjoyment  by  repeating  them  to  himself.*  This 
version  he  retained  in  his  memory  to  his  dying  day.  “ Two 
years  before  he  died,”  says  Lady  Murray,  “ I was  witness  to  his 
desiring  my  mother  to  take  up  that  book,  which,  among  others, 
always  lay  upon  his  table,  and  bidding  her  try  if  he  had  forgot 
his  Psalms,  by  naming  any  one  she  would  have  him  repeat,  and 
by  casting  her  eye  over  it,  she  would  know  if  he  was  right, 
though  she  Bid  not  understand  it ; and  he  missed  not  a word  in 
any  place  she  named  to  him,  and  said  they  had  been  the  great 
comfort  of  his  life  by  night  and  day,  on  all  occasions.” 

As  this  gloomy  vault,  in  which  Sir  Patrick  had  taken  refuge, 
was  no  fit  habitation  for  the  living,  his  lady  and  daughter  were 
contriving  other  places  in  which  he  might  more  comfortably  re- 
main concealed.  Among  other  suggestions,  it  occurred  to  them 
that  a hiding-place  might  be  formed  in  their  own  house,  beneath 

* While  he  thus  lay,  surrounded  by  the  gloomy  relics  of  the  dead,  Sir  Patrick,  it 
seems,  was  superior  to  superstitious  fears,  to  which  a concern  for  his  safety,  as 
well  as  the  strength  of  his  mind,  would  doubtless  contribute.  “ While  he  was  sit-  • 
ting,  one  night,”  tradition  reports,  by  a small  table,  with  a light, engaged  in  the 
perusal  of  Buchanan’s  Latin  version  of  the  Psalms,  his  eye  was  suddenly  attracted 

to  a human  skull  at  his  feet,  which,  on  more  minute  observation,  appeared  to  move 
slightly,  and  at  short  intervals.  Although  of  strong  mind,  and  convinced  that  it  was 
either  the  effect  of  optical  delusion,  or  that  of  an  imagination  pow^erfully  acted  upon 
by  the  objects  around  him,  still  he  was  not  a little  perplexed  how  to  settle  the  ques- 
tion in  his  own  mind  ; and,  continuing  to  observe  it  wnth  increasing  interest,  the 
motion,  at  last,  became  so  obvious,  that  the  skull  seemed  as  if  animated,  and  left  no 
subterfuge  for  his  incredulity.  The  knight,  however — with  a coolness  and  compo- 
sure w'hich  did  credit  to  his  philosophy,  and  resolved  to  ascertain,  by  still  more 
palpable  evidence,  the  actual  state  of  the,  matter — applied  the  point  of  his  cane  to 
the  ghastly  relic,  and,  by  a sudden  jerk,  turned  it  over.  This  done,  the  nervous 
suspense  was  instantly  relieved,  and  a viovse,  that  had  been  banqueting  in  the 
once  warm  brain  of  some  departed  Yorick,  sprang  from  its  burrow,  and  left  the 
knight  to  exclaim,  in  w'ords  suited  to  the  occasion — 

‘ To  what  base  uses  we  may  return,  Horatio ” 

— Beattie’s  Scotland,  Illustrated,  vol.  i.,  p.  25  “ There  is  a similar  story,”  says  the 

same  writer,  “ which  we  have  heard  somewhere  abroad — and  known,  perhaps,  to 
some  of  our  readers — which  states,  that  in  a domestic  chapel,  belonging  to  a certain 
chateau,  a mysterious  sound  was  heard  nightly  for  a considerable  time,  to  the  great 
alarm  and  annoyance  of  the  inmates,  and  ultimately  discovered  to  proceed  from  a 
skull,  which  performed  a rotary  march  along  the  floor  of  the  chancel — resting,  and 
recommencing  the  movement  at  short  intervals.  The  construction  at  first  put  on 
this  phenomenon  is  obvious ; but  the  secret  spring  w^as  not  discovered  for  some 
time  ; till  the  skull  becoming  stationary,  was  found,  on  examination,  to  contain  a rat, 
which  had  so  greatly  increased  in  bulk,  during  its  residence  in  the  deserted  temple 
of  genius,  that  the  porch  through  which  it  first  entered  refused  the  same  means  of 
retreat.  It  was,  therefore,  during  the  hard  struggle  for  emancipation,  that  the  re- 
fractory skull  was  thrown  into  such  wonderful  attitudes  ; while  the  ratAt  may  be 
added,*was  suffered,  from  superstitious  motives,  to  retain  possession  of  his  unhal- 
lowed tenement,  till  a rigid  fast,  having  succeeded  to  days  of  feasting,  should  enable 
him  to  make  his  exit  as  he  had  made  his  entrance,  and  leave  him  once  more  ‘ as 
poor  as  a church  rat.’  ” 

* Lady  Murray,  as  we  have  stated  in  the  text,  says  that  he  had  no  light,  but  he  may  occasionally  have  had 
one. 


436 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


a drawing-out  bed,  in  one  of  the  rooms  on  a ground  floor,  of 
which  Lady  Grisell  kept  the  key.  She,  and  their  confidential 
servant,  James  Winter,  before-mentioned,  labored  hard  in  the 
night-time  in  making  a hole  in  the  earth,  after  they  had  lifted  the 
wooden  floor.  The  way  in  which  they  proceeded  was  by  scratch- 
ing up  the  earth  with  their  hands,  being  afraid  lest,  had  they  dug 
it  with  any  instrument,  the  noise  might  have  created  alarm,  and 
led  to  a discovery.  So  laborious  and  persevering  was  Grisell  at 
this  task,  that  she  left  not  a nail  upon  her  fingers  ; and,  as  the 
earth  was  dug  out,  she  assisted  Winter  in  carrying  it  in  a sheet, 
on  his  back,  and  in  casting  it  out  at  the  window,  into  the  garden. 
Winter  next  constructed  a box,  at  his  own  house,  of  sufficient 
size  for  her  father  to  lie  in,  with  a bed  and  bedclothes  ; and  he 
bored  holes  in  the  box  for  the  free  admission  of  air.  To  accom- 
plish all  this  was  a work  of  considerable  time  ; but  when  it  was 
accomplished,  the  mind  of  Grisell  was  greatly  lightened,  and  she 
thought  herself  the  most  secure  and  happy  creature  alive.  The 
only  fear  she  and  her  mother  had  was,  that,  as  the  hole  was  un- 
derground, water  might  flow  into  the  box ; and,  to  ascertain 
whether  or  not  this  might  be  the  case,  they  gave  it  the  trial  of  a 
month ; during  which  time,  Grisell  having  examined  it  every 
day,  and  finding  no  water  in  it,  her  father  ventured  home,  trust- 
ing to  this  for  safety. 

But  after  he  had  been  at  home  for  a week  or  two,  during 
which  time  the  hole  was  daily  examined  as  usual,  Grisell,  one 
day  on  lifting  the  boards,  observed  the  bed  to  bounce  to  the  top,  the 
box  being  full  of  water.  At  this  she  was  greatly  alarmed,  and 
almost  fainted,  it  being  then  the  only  place  they  knew,  in  which 
her  father  could  find  shelter.  Her  father,  however,  with  great 
composure  said  to  his  lady  and  her,  that  he  saw  they  must  tempt 
Providence  no  longer,  and  that  he  ought  now  to  leave  them,  and 
seek  refuge  in  a foreign  land.  In  this  resolution  he  was  con- 
firmed by  the  news  which  the  carrier  brought  from  Edinburgh, 
that  Robert  Baillie  of  Jerviswood  had,  the  day  before,  been  exe- 
cuted at  the  cross  of  Edinburgh,  and  that  all  were  sorry  for  his 
death,  though  they  durst  not  show  it.  All  intercourse  by  letters 
being  then  dangerous,  this  was  the  first  intimation  Sir  Patrick 
and  his  family  had  received  of  the  fate  of  their  beloved 
friend ; and  it  gave  a greater  shock  to  their  feelings,  from  its 
being  altogether  unexpected.  Preparations  were  immediately 
made  for  his  departure  ; and  Grisell  wrought  incessantly,  night 
and  day,  in  making  such  alterations  on  his  garments  as  would 
serve  the  more  efiectually  to  disguise  him.  It  was  then  neces- 


LADY  BAILLIE  OF  JERVISWOOD. 


437 


sary  to  trust  their  grieve,  John  Allan,  who  fainted,  when  told  thai 
his  master  was  in  the  house,  and  that  he  behooved,  early  next 
morning,  to  set  out  with  him,  and  accompany  him  into  England ; 
pretending,  to  the  rest  of  the  servants,  that  he  was  going  to 
Morpeth  fair,  at  which  he  had  got  orders  to  sell  some  horses. 
The  parting  between  Sir  Patrick  and  his  family  w^as  sorrowful 
indeed  ; hut  after  he  was  fairly  gone,  though  deprived  of  his  so- 
ciety, and  ignorant  of  what  calamities  might  befall  either  him  or 
themselves,  they  were  greatly  relieved  in  mind,  and  even  happy 
in  thinking  that  he  was  on  the  way  to  the  land  of  safety.  On 
the  morning  on  which  he  started,  he  made  a narrow  escape  : a 
party  of  troopers  sent  to  apprehend  him,  having  come  to  the  house 
not  long  after  he  had  left  it,  and  searched  it  very  closely.  Nor 
was  it  less  providential  that  his  servant,  who  was  riding  at  some 
distance  behind  him,  had  missed  him  before  crossing  the  Tweed  ; 
for  during  that  time,  the  party,  having  probably,  when  at  the 
house,  heard  the  sound  of  horses  running,  suspecting  the  truth, 
followed  and  came  upon  the  servant ; but  they  had  left  him  before 
he  again  fell  in  with  his  master.  Sir  Patrick  reached  London 
in  safety,  and  then  went  to  France  ; whence,  after  a short  stay, 
he  proceeded  to  the  Netherlands,  and  thence  to  Holland.  The 
course  of  his  road  he  thus  describes,  in  his  narrative  of  Argyll’s 
expedition  : “ So  soon  as  I got  upon  the  continent,  I stayed  but 
short  [time]  in  France,  but  spent  some  weeks  in  Dunkirk,  Os- 
tend,  Bruges,  and  other  towns  in  Flanders  and  Brabant,  where  I 
traversed  before  I came  to  Brussels  ; whither,  [as]  soon  as  I 
heard  that  he  resided  there,  I went  to  converse  with  the  duke  of 
Monmouth,  but  he  was  gone  thence  to  the  Hague  ; which  led 
me,  after  waiting  some  time  for  him,  in  expectation  of  his  return, 
on  to  Antwerp,  and  so  to  Holland.”* 

Meanwhile,  proceedings  are  instituted  by  the  government 
against  him.  On  the  13th  of  November,  1684,  the  lord  advocate 
was  ordered  by  the  council  to  pursue  him  for  treason.  On  the 
26th  of  January,  1685,  he  was  denounced  a rebel,  and  put  to 
the  horn,  and  all  his  lands,  heritages,  goods,  and  gear,  forfeited 

The  Marchmont  Papers,  vol.  iii.,  p.  2.  Lady  Murray  is  incorrect  when,  in  giv- 
ing ajj  account  of  his  route  on  the  continent  at  this  time,  she  says  that  “from  Lon- 
don, he  went  to  Prance,  and  travelled  from  Bourdeaux  to  Holland-  on  foot."  Craw- 
ford, in  his  Lives  and  Characters  of  the  Officers  of  the  Crown  and  of  the  State  in  Scot- 
lanrl,  is  also  mistaken  when,  in  speaking  of  this  same  journey,  he  says,  that  after 
getting  beyond  sea.  Sir  Patrick  “lived  a while  at  Geneva,  whence  he  came 
down  to  Holland,  where  he  waited  on  the  prince  of  Orange."  Both  Lady  Murray 
and  Crawford  seem  to  confound  the  course  of  road  which  Sir  Patrick  took  on  the 
continent  on  his  escape  at  this  time,  with  that  which  he  took  on  his  escape  after 
the  failure  of  Argyll’s  expedition.  See  Note  4 on  page  438. 

37* 


438 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


to  his  majesty’s  use,  for  not  compearing  before  the  council,  to 
answer  to  the  false  charge  of  “ contriving  the  death  of  his  majesty, 
and  the  duke,  his*  brother,  overturning  the  government,  convf^.  se 
with  rebels,  and  concealing  of  treason.”  And,  on  the  26  n of 
January,  the  privy  council  gave  orders  to  secure  his  gooas  and 
rents,  to  be  made  forthcoming  for  his  majesty’s  use.* 

He  had  not  been  long  in  Holland  when  the  news  of  the  death 
of  Charles  H.  reached  him.  On  this  intelligence,  the.  Scottish 
and  English  exiles  resident  there,  who  had  before  been  concert- 
ing measures  for  the  deliverance  of  their  country  from  tyranny 
and  popery,  becoming  now  more  alarmed  than  ever,  from  their 
personal  knowledge  of  the  duke  of  York,  who  was  about  to  suc- 
ceed to  the  throne,  matured  a plan  for  the  invasion  of  England, 
under  the  duke  of  Monmouth,  and  of  Scotland,  under  the  earl  of 
Argyll.  In  this  conspiracy.  Sir  Patrick  was  a leading  man,  and 
he  accompanied  the  earl  of  Argyll  in  his  expedition  to  Scotland. 
After  Argyll  was  taken  prisoner,  and  his  forces  were  completely 
dispersed.  Sir  Patrick  found  an  asylum  in  the  house  of  a partic- 
ular friend,  Mr.  Montgomery,  the  laird  of  Langshaw,  in  Ayrshire. 
It  also  appears  that  he  was  concealed  at  Kilwinning  by  ‘‘  that 
eminent  religious  lady,”  Eleonore  Dunbar,  aunt  to  the  then  earl 
of  Eglinton,  for  several  weeks  in  an  empty  house,  till  he  got  out 
of  the  country.!  It  was  in  this  retreat  that  he  composed  his 
interesting  narrative  of  the  leading  events  of  Argyll’s  invasion. 
Leaving  Kilwinning,  he  found  an  opportunity  of  safely  crossing 
over  to  Ireland,  first  reaching  Dublin,  whence  he  embarked  for 
Bourdeaux,  a large  city  in  France.^  Having  remained  some 
months  in  France,  he  next  travelled  to  Geneva  on  foot,||  and,  after 
remaining  there  for  some  time,  went  on  foot  to  Rotterdam,  and 
ultimately  took  up  his  residence  at  Utrecht.  In  these  peregrina- 
tions, he  assumed  the  character  of  a surgeon ; and,  being  able  to 
bleed,  he  always  carried  lancets  on  his  person.  Even  after 
taking  up  his  residence  in  Holland,  though  living  under  the  im- 
mediate protection  of  the  prince  of  Orange,  and  honored  with  the 

Wodrow’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  226.  t Ibid.,  p.  312. 

t Crawford’s  Lives  and  Characters,  &c. 

J|  That  he  was  at  Bourdeaux  in  France,  and  Geneva,  when  escaping  from  Scot- 
land, at  this  time,  is  evident  from  his  letters,  printed  at  the  end  of  Lady  Mtirray’s 
memoirs  of  her  parents.  His  first  letter  from  Bourdeaux  was  written  November 
15,  1685.  There  is  also  a letter  dated  January  13,  1686,  another  dated  two  days, 
and  another  four  days  after,  all  which  appear  to  have  been  written  from  that  city. 
There  are  also  two  letters  dated  Geneva,  the  one  on  May  17,  and  the  other  on  June 
12,  1686.  His  letter  from  Bourdeaux  of  January  13,  shows  that  he  gave  himself  out 
there  as  a surgeon.  He  signs  that  letter  as  Peter  Wallace,  and  it  was  as  Dr. 
Wallace,  that  Captain  Burd.  who  travelled  with  him  on  foot  a part\>f  the  way  from 
France  to  Holland,  knew  him. 


LADY  BAILLIE  OF  JERVISWOOD. 


439 


personal  friendship  of  that  prince,  who,  looking  on  him  as  a 
confessor  for  the  protestant  religion  and  the  liberties  of  his 
country,  treated  him  with  a very  particular  respect,  he  judged  it 
ex]5edient  to  continue  to  keep  up  his  assumed  character  as  a 
medical  gentleman.  After  his  arrival  in  that  country,  he  sent  to 
his  lady  his  narrative  of  Argyll’s  expedition,  formerly  referred 
to,  which  is  written  in  the  form  of  a letter  to  her,  and  which, 
though  it  was  written  in  Scotland,  he  had  not  found,  while  there, 
a convenient  opportunity  of  sending  to  her.  This  narrative  he 
begins  as  follows  : — 

“ My  dear  Heart  Since  I can  have  small  hope  of  seeing 
you  any  more,  or  enjoying  the  pleasure  of  conversing  with  you, 
a thing  wherein  as  now  I more  than  ever  discern  my  happiness 
on  this  earth  did  much  consist,  not  knowing  how  long  God  will 
preserve  me  from  the  hands  of  mine  enemies,  who  hunt  earnestly 
after  my  life,  have  set  a rate  upon  my  head,  and  done  otherwise 
what  they  can  to  cut  off  from  me  all  ways  of  escaping  their  fury ; 
I found  myself  obliged,  on  many  accounts,  public  and  my  own, 
to  spend  some  time,  in  giving  to  the  nation,  and  my  friends  and  my 
family,  some  account  of  the  matters  I have  of  late  had  hand  in, 
and  of  myself ; that  the  affair  chiefly,  many  worthy  persons  therein 
concerned,  and  I,  may  not  by  ignorant,  or  false  representations, 
be  prejudged  or  discredited ; and  there  is  none  to  whom  I can 
address  it  so  duly  as  you,  or  so  safely ; for  though  this  mock  par- 
liament have  made  it,  by  their  forfaulting  me,  very  dangerous  for 
others,  yet  you  may  with  somewhat  more  safety  receive  a letter 
from  me  ; also  none  will  take  so  much  care  of  dispersing  the 
contents  as  I think  you  will ; besides  that  there  is  none  I can  be 
more  obliged  to  satisfy  than  you  by  it ; and  for  these  purposes  I 
recommend  it  to  your  care  and  discretion.”! 

Sir  Patrick’s  estate  having  been  forfeited  to  the  crown,  Grisell, 
after  he  had  left  the  country,  went  to  London,  by  sea,  with  her 
mother ; whose  object,  in  undertaking  that  journey,  was  to  en- 
deavor to  obtain  from  government  an  allowance  out  of  her  hus- 
band’s estate,  for  herself  and  her  ten  children.  They  waited  long 
in  London,  and  were  assisted  in  their  endeavors  by  many  good 

“ This  paper  was  addressed  to  his  wife  from  Holland — Note,  in  Rose’s  Obser- 
vations in  Fox's  History.  There  is  a second  copy  of  this  Narrative,  apparently  in 
the  handwriting  of  Alexander,  earl  of  Marchmont,  which  is  headed  as  follows: — 
•Letter  to  D.  Gii  elle  Kar,  from  her  husband,  Sir  Patrick  Hume,  in  anno  1685, 

WTyten  froin  Kilwinning,  where  he  lurked  at  the  time,  by  the  kind  favor  of  Lady 

Montgomerie. -sister  to  the  earl  of  Eglinton.  and  spouse  of Dunbar,  youngey  of 

Baldoon,  taken  from  a copy  wry  ten  of  his  own  hand,  which  is  yet  amongst  his 
papers.’  ” — Note  of  Editor  of  The  Marchmont  Papers, 
t The  Marchmont  Papers,  vol.  iii.,  p.  2. 


440 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


friends,  from  whom  they  met  with  much  kindness  and  ciyh^y, 
as  Lord  William  Russell’s  family,  Lord  Wharton’s,  and  others, 
but  all  she  could  obtain  was,  according  to  Lady  Murray,  only 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  per  annum.*  This  matter 
being  settled,  they  returned  to  Scotlaiid  to  prepare  for  going  over 
to  Holland  to  Sir  Patrick,  who  sent  for  them,  and  they  all  went 
over  together,  with  the  exception  of  Grisell’s  sister,  Julian,  whose 
ill  health  unfitted  her  for  such  a journey.  Grisell  afterward  re- 
turned from  Holland  by  herself,  to  bring  over  Julian,  when  her 
health  was  in  some  measure  recruited,  to  join  the  rest  of  the 
family.  She  was  at  the  same  time  intrusted  with  the  manage- 
ment of  some  of  her  father’s  business,  and  got  instructions  to 
collect  as  much  of  the  debts  due  to  him  as  possible.  All  this 
she  performed  with  her  usual  discretion  and  success,  though  not 
without  encountering  adventures  that  would  have  completely 
overwhelmed  the  resources  of  most  young  ladies  of  her  age  and 
rank”  in  our  day.  Her  sister  Julian  was  still  so  very  weak,  as 
to  require  the  attendance  of  a nurse  during  the  whole  of  the 
voyage,  which  happened  to  be  very  tedious,  and  in  which  they 
encountered  a severe  storm,  the  terrors  of  which  were  aggravated 
by  the  brutality  of  the  captain  of  the  vessel.  Grisell  had  bar- 
gained for  the  cabin  bed,  and  was  very  well  provided  in  provis- 
ions and  other  necessary  things.  Three  or  four  other  ladies  had 
also  agreed  with  the  captain  for  the  same  bed ; and  a dispute 
arose  between  these  ladies  in  the  cabin,  as  to  who  should  have 
the  bed,  in  which,  however,  Grisell  took  no  part,  and  a gentleman 
present  bade  her  let  the  disputants  settle  the  matter  between 
them  ; for,  said  he,  “ You  will  see  how  it  will  end.”  Two  of 
the  ladies  went  into  the  cabin  bed,  and  the  rest  found  a bed  as 
they  best  could ; while  Grisell  and  her  sister  lay  upon  the  floor, 
with  a bag  of  books,  which  she  was  carrying  to  her  father,  for 
their  pillow.  They  had  not  lain  long,  when  the  captain  of  the 
vessel  coming  down  to  the  cabin,  voraciously  devoured  their 
whole  provisions.  He  then  said  to  the  two  ladies  in  the  cabin 
bed,  “ Turn  out,  turn  out and,  stripping  before  them,  lay  down 
in  the  bed  himself.  But  a terrible  storm  arising,  which  required 
his  attendance  and  labor  on  deck  to  save  the  ship,  he  had  soon 
to  rise,  and  they  saw  no  more  of  him  till  they  landed  at  the  Brill. 

* Sir  Patrick’s  estate  was  afterward,  by  the  king’s  letter,  dated of 1686, 

gifted  to  Kenneth,  earl  of  Seaforih,  under  several  reservations  mentioned,  one  of 
which  was,  that  he  be  “ bound  to  pay  the  young  Lady  Pol warth’s  jointure,  conform 
to  her  contract  of  marriage  with  the  said  Sir  Patrick  Hume,  and  the  additional  join- 
ture thereafter  granted  unto  her ; both  extending  to  three  thousand  merks  Scots 
money,”  that  is,  <£166,  13s.,  4d.,  sterling. — The  Marchmont  Papers,  vol.  iii.,  p.  67. 


LADY  BAILLIE  OF  JERVISWOOD. 


441 


From  the  Brill  they  set  out  the  same  night,  on  foot,  for  Rotterdam, 
ki  company  with  a gentleman  who  came  over  at  the  same  time, 
to  take  refuge  in  Holland  from  the  persecution  which  was  raging 
in  Scotland,  and  who  was  of  great  service  to  them.  The  night 
was  cold,  wet,  and  disagreeable,  and  the  roads  were  very  bad ; 
Julian,  in  consequence  of  her  previous  ill  health,  and  being  only 
a girl,  was  not  well  able  to  travel,  and  soon  lost  her  shoes  in  the 
mud,  upon  which  Grisell  carried  her  on  her  back  the  rest  of  the 
way,  the  gentleman  kindly  carrying  their  small  luggage.  0-n 
arriving  at  Rotterdam,  they  found  their  eldest  brother  Patrick 
and  their  father  waiting  for  them,  to  convey  them  to  Utrecht, 
where  the  family  resided ; and  no  sooner  did  she  reach  home, 
than,  in  the  midst  of  her  beloved  parents,  sisters,  and  brothers, 
she  forgot  all  her  hardships,  and  felt  the  utmost  contentment  and 
happiness. 

They  lived  three  years  and  half  in  Holland,  and,  during  that 
time,  Grisell  made  a second  voyage  to  Scotland,  about  her  father’s 
worldly  affairs.  Her  father,  to  escape  detection,  did  not  stir  abroad, 
and,  as  has  been  previously  said,  still  continued  to  assume  the 
character  of  a surgeon,  passing  under  the  name  of  Dr.  Wallace  ; 
though  it  was  well  known,  by  the  Scottish  exiles  and  their  friends, 
who  he  was.  Finding  their  greatest  comfort  at  home,  and  their 
house  being  a place  of  constant  resort  to  the  presbyterian  refu- 
gees, of  whom  at  that  time,  there  was  a great  number  in  PIol- 
land,  they  were  particularly  desirous  of  having  a good  house  ; 
and  they  rented  one  at  nearly  a fourth  part  of  their  whole  annual 
income.  From  the  smallness  of  their  income,  they  could  not 
afford  to  keep  a servant,  having  only,  besides  themselves,  a little 
girl  to  wash  the  dishes  ; so  that  the  duties  of  the  kitchen,  and, 
indeed,  the  management  of  the  whole  household  establishment, 
devolved  on  Grisell ; for  which,  from  her  active  and  industrious 
habits,  she  was  well  qualified,  and  by  which  she  proved  a great 
blessing  to  her  parents,  brothers,  and  sisters.  During  the  whole 
time  of  their  residence  in  Holland,  a week  did  not  pass  in  which 
she  did  not  sit  up  two  nights  engaged  in  some  necessary  house- 
hold occupation.  “ She  went  to  market,  went  to  the  mill  to  have 
their  corn  ground,  which  it  seems  is  the  way  with  good  mana- 
gers there,  dressed  the  linen,  cleaned  the  house,  made  ready  the 
dinner,  mended  the  children’s  stockings  and  other  clothes,  made 
what  she  could  for  them,  and,  in  short,  did  everything.”  Her 
sister  Christian,  who  was  a year  or  two  younger,  had  no  turn  for 
business,  but  had  good  talents  for  music,  and  was  full  of  vivacity 
and  humor.  Out  of  their  small  income,  her  parents  bought,  at  a 


442 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


triffing  price,  a harpsichord,  which  turned  out  to  be  an  excellent 
instrument;  and  in  the  musical. performances  of  Christian,  who 
both  played  and  sung  well,  her  father  and  mother,  and  the  rest 
of  the  family,  who  were  fond  of  music,  found  an  agreeable  relax- 
ation in  their  vacant  hours.  Griselidhad  the  same  talents  for 
music  as  her  sister,  and  was  equally  fond  of  it ; but  the  manage- 
ment of  household  affairs  devolving  on  her,  she  had  less  leisure 
far  indulging  in  that  amusement.  The  performance  of  these  domes- 
tic offices  was  to  her,  however,  a labor  of  love  ; and  so  far  was 
she  from  envying  or  upbraiding  her  sister,  who  was  exempted  from 
the  toil  and  drudgery  to  which  she  had  to  submit,  that  many 
jokes  used  to  pass  between  them  about  their  different  occupa- 
tions. Nor  had  she  any  good  ground  for  wishing  to  exchange 
occupations  with  her  sister.  “ ‘ It  is  more  blessed  to  minister, 
than  to  be  ministered  unto,’  said  the  most  perfect  character  that 
ever  appeared  in  the  human  form.  Could  any  young  person,  of 
ever  such  a listless  and  idle  disposition,  not  entirely  debased  by 
selfishness,  read  of  the  different  occupations  of  Lady  Grigell 
Baillie  and  this  sister  of  hers,  nearly  of  her  own  age,  whose  time 
was  mostly  spent  in  reading  or  playing  on  a musical  instrument, 
and  wish,  for  one  moment,  to  have  been  the  last-mentioned  lady, 
rather  than  the  other  ?”*  Every  morning,  before  six  o’clock, 
Grisell  lighted  her  father’s  fire  in  his  study,  after  which  she 
awoke  him,  for  he  was  always  a good  sleeper  ; a blessing,  among 
others,  which  she  inherited  from  him.  She  then  prepared  for 
him  warm  small  beer,  with  a spoonful  of  bitters  in  it — a beverage 
which  he  continued  to  take  every  morningj  as  soon  as  he  got  up, 
during  the  whole  of  his  life.  She  next  got  the  children  dressed, 
and  brought  them  all  into  his  room ; where  he  taught  them  the 
different  branches  of  education,  the  Latin,  French,  or  Dutch  lan- 
guages, geography,  writing,  reading,  or  English,  according  to 
their  ages  ; and  his  lady  taught  them  such  departments  of  learn- 
ing, and  such  accomplishments,  as  belong  to  the  province  of  the 
female  teacher.  In  this  useful  and  interesting  way,  were  Sir 
Patrick  Hume  and  his  lady  employed  during  the  whole  period 
of  their  residence  in  Holland ; their  outward  circumstances  be- 
ing such,  that  they  could  not  afford  to  put  their  children  to  school. 
Grisell,  when  she  had  some  spare  time,  took  a lesson  with  the 
rest  in  French  and  Dutch,  and  also  amused  herself  with  music. 
‘‘  I have  now,”  says  her  daughter.  Lady  Murray,  “ a book  of 
songs,  of  her  writing,  when  there  ; many  of  them  are  interrupted, 
half  writ,  some  broke  off  in  the  middle  of  a sentence.” 

Joanna  Bailiie's  Metrical  Legends  of  Exalted  Characters,  Preface,  p.  xxxii. 


LADY  BAILLIE  OF  JERVISWOOD. 


443 


Whether  this  collection,  which  is  probably  now  lost,  consisted 
of  songs  altogether  of  her  own  composition  or  not,  it  is  not  said. 
But  a song  of  her  composition,  which  affords  a favorable  speci- 
men, of  her  talents  in  this  species  of  writing,  has  been  long  in 
print,  viz. : ‘‘Were  na  my  heart  licht  I wad  dee,”  and  it  may 
gratify  the  reader  to  see  a copy  of  it  here  : — ■ 

There  was  ance  a may,  and  she  loo’d  na  men, 

She  big-git  her  bonny  bower  down  in  yon  glen  ; 

But  now  she  cries  dool ! and  a-well-a-day  ! 

Come  down  the  green  gate,  and  come  here  away. 

But  now  she  cries,  &c. 

“ When  bonny  young  Johnny  came  o’er  the  sea, 

He  said  he  saw  naething  sae  lovely  as  me  ; 

He  hecht  me  baith  rings  and  mony  braw  things  ; 

And  were  na  my  heart  licht  I wad  dee. 

He  hecht  me,  &c. 

“ He  had  a wee  titty  that  loo’d  na  me. 

Because  I was  twice  as  bonny  as  she  ; 

She  raised  such- a pother  ’twixt  him  and  his  mother. 

That  were  na  my  heart  licht  I wad  dee. 

She  raised,  &c. 

“ The  day  it  was  set  and  the  bridal  to  be, 

Tfepe  wife  took  a dwam,  and  lay  down  to  dee  ; 

She  mained  and  she  grained  out  o’  dolour  and  pain, 

Till  he  vowed  he  never  wad  see  me  again. 

She  mained,  &c. 

“ His  kin  was  for  ane  o’  a higher  degree, 

Said,  What  had  he  to  do  with  the  like  of  me  ? 

Albeit  1 was  bonny,  1 was  nae  for  Johnny  : 

And  were  na  my  heart  licht  I wad  dee. 

Albeit  I was  bonny,  &c.  ^ 

“ They  said  I had,  neither  cow  nor  calf, 

Nor  dribbles  o’  drink  riiis  throw  the  dralF, 

Nor  pickles  o’  meal  rins  throw  the  mill-ee  : 

And  were  na  my  heart  licht  I wad  dee. 

Nor  pickles,  &c. 

“ His  titty  she  was  baith  wylie  and  slee, 

She  spied  me  as  I came  o’er  the  lea  ; 

And  then  she  ran  in  and  made  a loud  din : 

Believe  your  ain  een,  an  ye  trow  na  me. 

And  then  she  ran  in,  &c. 

“His  bonnet  stood  aye  fu’  round  on  his  brow ; 

His  auld  ane  looked  as  weel  as  some’s  new  ; 

But  now  he  lets  t’  wear  ony  gate  it  will  hing, 

And  casts  himself  dowie  upon  the  corn  bing. 

But  now  he,  &c. 

“ And  now  he  gaes  daundrin  about  the  dykes. 

And  a’  he  dow  do  is  to  hund  the  tykes  ; 

The  live-lang  nicht  he  ne’er  steeks  his  e’e ; 

And  were  na  my  heart  licht  I wad  dee. 


444 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


*'  Were  I young  for  thee,  as  I ha’e  been, 

W e should  ha’e  been  gallopin  down  on  yon  green, 

And  linkin  it  blytbe  on  the  lily-white  lee  ; 

And  wow  gin  I were  but  young  for  thee  ! 

And  linkin  it, 

“ This/’  as  has  been  justly  said  by  a writer  in  the  Scots  Mag- 
azine, “ is  very  good ; at  once  simple,  lively,  and  tender.”! 

The  same  writer  expresses  a hope  that  the  book  of  songs  in 
Grisell’s  handwriting,  to  which  Lady  Murray  refers  as  being  in 
her  possession,  may  yet  be  recovered,  and  that  it  might  afford 
further  specimens  of  her  poetical  talents  ; or,  if  not  altogether  of 
her  own  composition,  might  furnish  some  Valuable  additions  to 
the  lyric  treasures  by  which  Scotland  has  been  so  peculiarly  dis- 
tinguished. He  then  adds,  “We  are  enabled  to  subjoin  one  unpub- 
lished fragment  of  this  description — supposed  to  be  Lady  Grisell’s 
composition,  from  circumstantial  evidence.  It  was  lately  discover- 
ed, in  her  handwriting,  among  a parcel  of  old  letters,  and  enclosed 
in  one  of  them,  written  about  the  time  of  her  father’s  forfeiture, 
to  her  brother  Patrick,  then  serving  with  Mr.  Baillie  in  the  prince 
of  Orange’s  guards.  The  first  two  of  the  stanzas  are  copied  from 
this  MS.  The  others  (in  brackets)  are  subjoined,  as  an  imper- 
fect attempt  to  complete  the  song  in  a similar  style,  but  with  a 
more  direct  reference  to  the  situation  of  Lady  Grisell  and  the 
family  of  Pol  war  th  at  that  disastrous  period.” 

“ O the  ewe  bughting’s  bonnie,  baith  e’euing  and  morn, 

When  our  blytbe  shepherds  play  on  their  bog-reed  and  hora ; 

While  we  ’re  milking  they  ’re  lilting  baith  pleasant  and  clear — 

But  my  heart ’s  like  to  break  when  I think  of  my.  dear ! 

“ O the  shepherd  take  pleasure  to  blow  on  the  horn, 

To  raise  up  their  flocks  o’  sheep  soon  i’  the  mom  ; 

On  the  bonnie  green  banks  they  feed  pleasant  and  free — 

But,  alas  ! my  dear  heart,  all  my  sighing’s  for  thee  ! 

“ [How  blythe  wi’  my  Sandy  out  o’er  the  brown  fells, 

I ha’e  followed  the  flocks  through  the  fresh  heather-bells ! 

But  now  I sit  greeting  amang  the  lang  broom, 

In  the  dowie  green  cleuchs  whare  the  burnie  glides  down. 

O wae  to  the  traitors  ! an’  black  be  their  fa’, 

Wha  banished  my  kind-hearted  shepherd  aw  a ! 

Wha  banished  my  laddie  ayont  the  wide  sea, 

That  aye  was  sae  lael  to  his  country  and  me. 

“ But  the  cruel  oppressors  shall  tremble  for  fear. 

When  the  true-blue  and  orange  in  triumph  appear  ; 

And  the  star  of  the  east  leads  them  o’er  the  dark  sea, 

Wi’  freedom  to  Scotland,  and  Sandy  to  me.”]J 

* Uitson’s  Scottish  Songs,  voi.  i.,  p.  128 ; and  Chambers’s  Scottish  Songs,  vol.  ii., 
p.  321. 

t Scots  Magazine,  New  Series,  for  1818,  pp.  35,  36.  J Ibid.,  pp.  435,  436. 


LADY  BAILLIE  OF  JERVISWOOD. 


445 


From  these  lively  specimens  of  Grisell’s  lyric  compositions, 
as  well  as  from  the  whole  of  the  preceding  narrative,  it  was  evi- 
dent that,  in  addition  to  her  other  good  qualities,  she  was  char- 
acterized by  a buoyant  animation  of  spirit,  combined  with  a guile- 
lessness of  soul  which  gave  a great  charm  to  her  character,  and 
made  her  universally  beloved.  In  her  history,  and,  indeed,  in 
that  of  all  her  family,  whose  good  humor  and  harmless  pleasant- 
ry made  their  society  so  agreeable^  and  so  greatly  courted,  we 
perceive  how  erroneously  presbytery  and  the  covenant  have  often 
been  represented  as  deadly  enemies  to  innocent  hilarity,  and  our 
presbyterian  ancestors  as  the  personification  of  austerity  and  mo- 
roseness. 

To  her  eldest  brother  Patrick,  who  was  nearest  to  her  own 
age,  and  who  was  brought  up  with  her,  Grisell  was  more  strong- 
ly attached  than  to  her  other  brothers  or  sisters.  He  and  George 
Baillie  (the  son  of  Robert  Baillie  the  martyr),  her  future  hus- 
band, who  was  deprived  of  his  father’s  estate  which  had  been  for- 
feited, and  who  was  then  in  Holland,  having  been  also  obliged 
to  take  refuge  in  exile,  served  for  some  time  as  privates  in  the 
prince  of  Orange’s  guards,  till  more  honorable  and  lucrative  sit- 
uations were  provided  for  them  in  the  army,  which  was  done  be- 
fore the  revolution.  Grisell,  who  was  always  very  neat  in  her 
own  dress,  felt  an  honest  pride  in  seeing  her  brother  neat  and 
clean  in  his ; and  it  being  the  fashion,  in  those  days,  to  wear  lit- 
tle point  cravats  and  cuffs,  she  sat  up  many  a night  to  have  them 
and  his  linens  in  as  good  order  for  him  as  any  in  the  place.  His 
dress  was,  indeed,  one  of  the  heaviest  items  in  their  expenses. 

Narrow  and  precarious  as  was  the  income  of  Sir  Patrick  and 
his  family,  they  were  distinguished  for  their  kind-hearted  hospi- 
tality. His  house,  as  has  been  said  before,  was  much  frequented 
by  such  of  his  countrymen,  as,  like  himself,  had  taken  refuge 
from  persecution  in  Holland.  And  seldom  did  the  family  sit  down 
to  dinner,  without  having  three,  four,  or  five,  of  these  refugees  with 
them  to  partake  of  their  humble  repast.  But  Providence  so  re- 
markably blessed  them  in  their  basket  and  in  their  store,  that 
they  wanted  for  nothing  which  they  really  needed.  And  virtue 
being  associated  with  adversity,  they  felt  contentment  and  hap- 
piness ; a state  of  mind  which  was  much  promoted  by  their  con- 
trasting the  comfortable  retreat  they  had  found  on  a foreign  shore, 
with  the  suffering  condition  of  many  of  their  presbyterian  friends 
at  home.  ‘‘  Many  a hundred  times,”  says  Lady  Murray,  speak- 
ing of  her  mother,  “ I have  heard  her  say,  she  could  never  look 
back  upon  their  manner  of  living  there,  without  thinking  it  a mir- 

38 


446 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


acle  ; they  had  no  want,  but  plenty  of  everything  they  desired,  and 
much  contentment,  and  [she]  always  declared  it  [to  be]  the  most 
pleasant  part  of  her  life  ; though  they  were  not  without  their  lit- 
tle distresses;  but  to  them  they  were  rather  jokes  than  griev- 
ances.” Sir  Patrick  being  a scholar,  the  professors  and  learned 
men  of  Utrecht  were  often  visitants  at  his  house,  and  the  best 
entertainment  he  could  give  them  was  a glass  of  alabaster  beer, 
which  was  a kind  of  ale  better  than  the  common. 

In  exile,  he  continued  to  watch  over  the  state  of  affairs  in  Scot- 
land, and  discovered  in  William,  prince  of  Orange,  of  whose 
talents  and  character  he  entertained  the  highest  admiration,  the 
future  deliverer  of  his  country.  He  had  penetration  enough  to 
see,  that  the  object  aimed  at  in  James  YII.’s  schemes  of  tolera- 
tion for  dissenters,  was  under  the  disguise  of  benefiting  them, 
to  afford  relief  to  papists,  and  ultimately  to  pave  the  way  for  the 
establishment  of  popery.  Accordingly,  in  June,  1668,  he  ad- 
dressed from  Utrecht  a well-written  and  powerfully-reasoned 
letter,  to  his  friend  Sir  William  Denholm,  who  had  been  in  Ar- 
gyll’s expedition,  to  be  communicated  to  the  presbyterian  minis- 
ters of  Scotland,  to  put  them  on  their  guard  against  an  insidious 
plan  which  was  in  agitation,  to  induce  them  to  petition  in  favor 
of  King  James’s  deceptive  measure  for  a toleration.  “ All  I 
shall  add,”  says  he  in  the  close,  is  to  wish  protestants  to  see  to 
it  and  not  to  be  gulled  by  their  enemies,  not  to  misjudge  their 
friends,  and  to  be  ever  ready  to  do  or  to  suffer,  as  God  shall  call 
them  to  it,  for  their  interests  of  so  high  moment : pro  Chruto  et 
palria  dulce  periculurn,'^’’* 

At  length  the  time  of  Britain’s  deliverance  drew  near.  James 
YII.  having,  by  his  violent  and  infatuated  policy  to  establish  ar- 
bitrary power  and  popery  in  England,  roused  the  indignation  of 
the  English  people,  William,  prince  of  Orange,  to  save  the  lib- 
erties of  Britain,  made  preparations  for  invading  it.  Grisell’s 
father  shared  in  the  counsels  of  William ; and,  along  with  his 
son  Patrick  and  George  Baillie,  accompanied  him  in  his  enter- 
prise when  the  fleet  was  ready  to  sail.  As  was  natural,  she  and 
the  rest  of  the  family  felt  deeply  interested  in  the  success  of  this 
undertaking.  At  first  they  were  afflicted  with  anxious  and  mis- 
giving thoughts  as  to  the  issue,  when  William’s  whole,  fleet  was 
scattered  and  driven  back  by  a violent  tempest.  Having  heard 
of  this  melancholy  news,  she  herself,  her  mother,  and  her  sister, 
“ immediately  came  from  Utrecht  to  Helvoetsluys,  to  get  what 
information  they  could.  The  place  was  so  crowded  by  people 
^ The  Marchmont  Papers,  vol.  iii.,  p.  98. 


LADY  BAILLIE  OF  JERVISWOOD. 


447 


from  all  quarters,  come  for  tlie  same  purpose,  that  her  mother, 
she,  and  her  sister,  were  forced  to  lie  in  the  boat  they  came  in ; 
and,  for  three  days  continually,  to  see  coming  floating  in,  beds, 
chests,  horses,  &c.,  that  had  been  thrown  overboard  in  their  dis- 
tress. At  the  end  of  the’  third  day,  the  prince,  and  some  other 
ships  came  in  ; but  no  account  of  the  ship  their  friends  were  in. 
Their  despair  was  great,  but  in  a few  days  was  relieved  by  their 
coming  in  safe,  but  with  the  loss  of  all  their  baggage,  which,  at 
that  time,  was  no  small  distress  to  them.”* 

When  the  fleet,  on  the  damage  made  being  repaired,  set  out 
again,  the  solicitude  of  Grisell,  her  mother,  and  the  rest  of  the 
family,  for  its  success,  was  more  intense  than  ever.  To  hear  of 
those  embarked  having  safely  landed  in  England,  was  the  great- 
est joy  they  could  picture  to  their  minds.  Of  this  they  had  soon 
the  satisfaction  of  hearing ; but  the  joy  which  such  tidings,  in 
ordinary  circumstances,  would  have  given  them,  was  swallowed 
up  by  the  sorrow  into  which  they  were  plunged  by  the  unex- 
pected loss  of  Grisell’s  sister,  Christian,  who,  on  the  very  day 
on  which  the  welcome  news  reached  them,  died  suddenly  of  a 
sore  throat,  caught  from  her  exposure  in  the  damp,  open  boat,  at 
Helvoetsluys.  To  Grisell,  who  was  of  strong  and  tender  affec- 
tions, the  loss  of  “ the  sister  of  her  heart”  was  a great  affliction. 

When  that  happy  news  came,”  says  Lady  Murray,  “ it  was  no 
more  to  my  mother  than  any  occurrence  she  had  not  the  least 
concern  in ; for  that  very  day  her  sister  Christian  died  of  a sore 
throat ; which  was  so  heavy  an  affliction  to  both  her  and  her 
mother,  that  they  had  no  feeling  for  anything  else  ; and,”  adds 
Lady  Murray,  “ often  have  I heard  her  say  she  had  no  notion  of 
any  other  cause  of  sorrow  but  the  death  and  affliction  of  those 
she  loved ; and  of  that  she  was  sensible  to  her  last,  in  the  most 
tender  manner.  She  had  endured  many  hardships,  without  being 
depressed  by  them  ; on  the  contrary,  her  spirits  and  activity  in- 
creased the  more  she  had  occasion  for  them ; but  the  death  of 
her  friends  was  always  a load  too  heavy  for  her.” 

Happily,  the  prince  of  Orange’s  undertaking  was  crowned 
with  success.  In  England,  all  parties  rallied  around  him — a 
very  merciful  providence  for  Scotland,  which,  wasted  by  a per- 
secution of  twenty-eight  years,  was  now  lying  under  the  iron 
wheel  of  despotism,  crushed  in  spirit,  and  more  hopeless  of  de- 
liverance, in  so  far  as  her  own  intrinsic  power  was  concerned, 
than  at  any  previous  period  of  her  history.  But  England,  in 
saving  herself,  saved  Scotland.  When  matters  were  all  settled 
* Lady  Murray's  Narrative- 


448 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


in  England,  GriselFs  brothers  and  sisters  were  sent  home  to 
Scotland,  under  the  care  of  a friend ; while  she  herself  and  her 
mother  came  over  with  the  princess  of  Orange  to  London.  The 
princess,  now  about  to  ascend  the  British  throne,  attracted  by  the 
engaging  character  and  the  peculiarly  prepossessing  personal 
appearance  of  Grisell,*  wished  to  retain  her  near  her  person,  as 
one  of  her  maids  of  honor.  But  though  this  was  a situation  for 
which  Grisell  was  well  qualified,  and  to  which  many  of  her  age 
would  have  been  proud  to  have  been  elevated,  she  declined  the 
appointment,  preferring  to  go  home  with  the  rest  of  her  family. 

The  reader  has  already  been  informed  of  the  youthful  attach- 
ment which  sprung  up  between  her  and  George  Baillie,  within 
the  walls  of  his  father’s  prison ; and  also  that  Baillie  was  a refu- 
gee in  Holland  at  the  time  when  she  and  her  father’s  family  were 
resident  in  that  country.  In  their  exile,  their  affection  for  each 
other  increased,  and  they  had  their  marriage  always  in  view ; 
though,  from  the  circumstances  in  which  they  were  then  placed, 
neither  of  them  having  a shilling,  they  deemed  it  unwise  to  make 
known  their  intentions  to  her  parents,  and  were  at  no  small  pains 
to  conceal  their  mutual  passion  from  them.  In  the  midst  of  her 
parents’  troubles,  she  had  offers  of  marriage  from  two  gentlemen 
of  fortune  and  good  character,  in  her  own  neighborhood,  in  Scot- 
land, who  had  done  nothing  to  incur  the  resentment  of  the  gov- 
ernment ; and  her  parents,  thinking  these  to  be  favorable  oppor- 
tunities for  her  comfortable  settlement  in  life,  pressed  her  to 
marry  one  or  other  of  these  gentlemen.  “ She  earnestly  rejected 
both,  but  without  giving  any  reason  for  it,  though  her  parents 
suspected  it ; and  it  was  the  only  thing  in  which  she  ever  dis- 
pleased or  disobeyed  them.  These  gentlemen  were  intimate  and 
sincere  friends  to  Mr.  Baillie  and  her  to  the  day  of  their  death, 
and  often  said  to  them  both  she  had  made  a much  better  choice 
in  him ; for  they  made  no  secret  of  having  made  their  addresses 
to  her.  Her  parents  were  ever  fond  of  George  Baillie,  and  he 
was  always  with  them.  So  great  an  opinion  had  they  of  him. 

Her  personal  appearance  is  thus  described  by  her  daughter:  “She  was  middle’ 
sized,  well  made,  clever  in  her  person,  very  handsome,  with  a life  and  sweetness  in 
her  eyes  very  uncommon,  and  great  delicacy  in  all  her  features  ; her  hair  was  chest- 
nut ; and,  to  her  last,  had  the  finest  complexion,  with  the  clearest  red  in  her  cheeks 
and  lips  that  could  be  seen  in  one  of  fifteen,  which,  added  to  her  natural  constitu- 
tion, might  be  owing  to  the  great  moderation  she  had  in  her  diet  throughout  her 
whole  life.”  Lady  Murray  adds:  “ Pottage  and  milk  was  her  greatest  feast,  and 
by  choice  she  preferred  them  to  everything,  though  nothing  came  wrong  to  her  that 
others  could  eat.  Water  she  preferred  to  any  liquor,  and  though  often  obliged  to 
take  a glass  of  wine,  she  always  did  it  unwillingly,  thinking  it  hurt  her,  and  did  not 
like  it.” 


LADY  BAILLIE  OF  JERVISWOOD. 


449 


that  he  was  generally  preferred  to  any  other,  and  trusted  to  go 
out  with  her,  and  take  care  of  her,  when  she  had  any  business 
to  do.  They  had  no  objection  but  the  circumstances  he  was  in  ; 
which  had  no  weight  with  her,  for  she  always  hoped  things 
would  turn  out  at  last  as  they  really  did  ; and,  if  they  did  not,  she 
was  resolved  not  to  marry  at  all.”  Having,  after  the  revolution, 
been  put  in  possession  of  his  father’s  estatej  which  had  been 
gifted  to  the  duke  of  Gordon,  Baillie  made  known  to  her  parents 
the  engagement  between  him  and  her ; and  they  were  married 
at  Redbraes  castle,  on  September  17,  1692.  At  that  time,  her 
father  (his  political  and  personal  troubles  being  now  over)  was 
in  high  favor  with  King  William,  and  was  enjoying  in  security 
that  wealth  and  honor  to  which  his  sufferings  in  the  cause  of 
religion  and  liberty  so  well  entitled  him.* 

The  fruits  of  GriselFs  marriage  with  George  Baillie  were  a 
son,  Robert,  born- January  23,  1694,  who  died  young  ; and  two 
daughters — Grisell,  who  was  married  August  26,  1710,  to  Sir 
Alexander  Murray  of  Stanhope,  Bart.,  M.  P.,  and  died  without 
issue,  June  6,  1759,  aged  sixty-seven  ; and  Rachel,  born  Febru- 
ary 23,  1696,  married  to  Charles,  Lord  Binning  (eldest  son  of 
Thomas,  sixth  earl  of  Haddington),  and  mother  of  Thomas,  sev- 
enth earl  of  Haddington,  George  Baillie  of  Jerviswood,  and  other 
children.! 

Lady  Grisell’s  marriage  with  Mr.  Baillie  was  unusually  happy. 
She  indeed  proved  to  him,  in  the  words  of  the  poet — 

“ A guardian  angel  o’&i'  his  life  presiding, 

Doubling  his  pleasures,  and  his  cares  dividing.*’ 

* On  the  new  order  of  things  introduced  at  the  revolution,  he  was  nominated  a 
member  of  the  new  privy  council  in  Scotland,  and  in  December,  1690,  was  created 
a Scottish  peer  by  the  title  of  Lord  Polwarth.  In  1692,  he  was  appointed  principal 
sheriff  of  Berwickshire,  and,  in  1693,  one  of  the  four  extraordinary  lords  of  session. 
In  1696,  he  was  made  lord  chancellor  of  Scotland,  the  highest  office  in  that  king- 
dom ; in  less  than  a year  after,  he  was  created  earl  of  Marchmont;  and,  in  1698,  he 
was  appointed  lord  hig^h  commissioner  to  represent  Uie  king’s  person  in  the  session 
of  parliament  which  met  at  Edinburgh  in  July  that  year.  It  is  interesting  to  know 
that,  in  prosperity,  this  nobleman  did  not  forget  those  who  had  befriended  him  in  adver- 
sity. “ There  is  a family  tradition  which  relates  that,  being  obliged,  in  consequence 
cf  political  persecution,  to  quit  Redbraes  house  and  cross  the  country,  a little  above 
Greenlaw,  he  met  with  a man  of  the  name  of  Broomfield,  the  miller  of  Greenlaw 
mill,  who  was  repairing  a slap  or  breach  in  the  mill-caul.  Sir  Patrick,  addressing 
h m by  the  occupation  in  which  he  was  engaged,  said,  ‘ Slap,  have  you  any  money  V 
upon  whicVi  Broomfield  supplied  him  with  what  was  considered  necessary  for  his 
pt-e.sent  exigency.  Sir  Patrick,  it  is  added,  was  obliged  to  pass  over  into  Holland  ; 
but  when  he  came  back  with  King  William,  did  not  forget  his  former  benefactor  in 
need.  It  is  not  stated  what  return  he  made  him, but  the  family  was  settled  in  a free 
house  as  long  as  they  lived,  and  ever  after  retained  the  name  of  Slap'' — New  Sta- 
tistical Account  of  Scotland. 

t Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  ii.,  p.  81. 


38* 


450 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


Equally  ardent  and  tender  was  his  affection  toward  her,  in  whom 
he  found  combined  the  qualities  of  the  “ virtuous  woman”  whom 
Solomon’s  mother  so  happily  describes,  and  whose  “ price  is  far 
above  rubies.”  On  her  he  left  the  sole  charge  of  domestic  af- 
fairs, and  even  in  reference  to  matters  of  graver  importance  he 
placed  great  confidence  in  her  judgment.  “ None  could  better 
judge,”  says  her  daughter,  “ than  herself,  what  was  most  proper 
to  be  done  upon  any  occasion ; of  which  my  father  was  so  con- 
vinced, that  I have  good  reason  to  believe  he  never  did  anything 
of  consequence  through  his  whole  life  without  asking  her  advice. 
She  had  a quickness  of  apprehension  and  sagacity  that  generally 
hit  upon  the  fittest  things  to  be  done.”  Her  daughter  adds  : 
“ Though  she  had  a quick  and  ready  wit,  yet  she  spoke  little  in 
company,  but  where  she  was  quite  free  and  intimate.  . She  used 
often  to  wonder  at  a talent  she  met  with  in  many,  that  could 
entertain  their  company  with  numberless  words,  and  yet  say 
nothing.” 

In  1703,  Lady  Baillie  lost  her  dear  mother,  who  died  at  Edin- 
burgh, October  11,  that  year.  On  her  dying  bed,  her  mother, 
who  retained  her  judgment  to  the  last,  was  surrounded  by  all  her 
children.  At  this  scene.  Lady  Baillie,  in  the  agony  of  her  grief, 
had  hid  herself  behind  the  curtain  of  the  bed,  so  that  her  mother, 
in  looking  round  upon  them  all,  did  not  see  her,  upon  which  she 
said,  “ Where  is  Grisell  ?”  Lady  Baillie  immediately  came  near 
her  mother,  who,  taking  her  by  the  hand,  said,  “ My  dear  Grisell, 
blessed  be  you  above  all,  for  a helpful  child  have  you  been  to 
me.” — “ I have  often  heard  my  mother,”  says  Lady  Murray,  “ tell 
this  in  floods  of  tears,  which  she  was  always  in  when  she  spoke 
of  her  mother  at  all.”  Great  was  the  sorrow  of  the  earl  of  March- 
mont,  and  of  the>  Avhole  family,  on  the  death  of  this  excellent  wife 
and  mother.  During  life,  she  had  experienced  great  variety  in 
her  outward  condition.  But,  in  every  situation,  she  was  distin- 
guished by  unpretending  piety  and  unspotted  virtue,  united  with 
great  sweetness,  composure,  and  equanimity  of  temper.  So  well 
disciplined  had  been  her  mind  by  adversity,  that,  when  exalted 
to  wealth  and  honor,  none  of  her  acquaintances,  from  the  highest 
to  the  lowest,  ever  found  that  these  had  created  any  change  in 
the  temper  of  her  mind.  To  her  virtues  and  amiable  qualities 
her  husband  has  borne  a very  affecting  testimony  in  an  inscrip- 
tion he  wrote  on  her  bible,  which  he  gave  to  his  daughter.  Lady 
Baillie  : — 

“ Grisell  Lady  Marchmont,  her  book.  To  Lady  Grisell  Hume, 
Lady  Jerviswood,  my  beloved  daughter.  My  heart,  in  remem- 


LADY  BAILLIE  OF  JERVISWOOD. 


451 


brance  of  your  mother,  keep  this  bible,  which  is  what  she  ordi- 
narily made  use  of.  She  had  been  happy  of  a religious  and  vir- 
tuous education,  by  the  care  of  virtuous  and  religious  parents. 
She  was  of  a middle  stature,  of  a plump,  full  body  ; a clear,  ruddy 
complexion  ; a grave,  majestic  countenance  ; a composed,  steady, 
and  mild  spirit ; of  a most  firm  and  equal  mind,  never  elevated 
by  prosperity,  nor  debased  or  daunted  by  adversity.  She  was  a 
wonderful  stay  and  support  to  me  in  our  exile  and  trouble,  and  an 
humble  and  thankful  partaker  with  me  in  our  more  prosperous 
condition ; in  both  which,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  she  helped 
much  to  keep  the  balance  of  our  deportment  even.  She  was 
constant  and  diligent  in  the  practice  of  religion  and  virtue,  a care- 
ful observer  of  worship  to  God,  and  of  her  duties  to  her  husband, 
her  children,  her  friends,  her  neighbors,  her  tenants,  and  her  ser- 
vants : so  that  it  may  justly  be  said,  her  piety,  probity,  virtue,  and 
prudence,  were  without  a blot  or  stain,  and  beyond  reproach.  As 
by  the  blessing  of  God  she  had  lived  well,  so  by  his  mercy,  in 
the  time  of  her  sickness  and  at  her  death,  there  appeared  many 
convincing  evidences  that  the  Lord  took  her  to  the  enjoyment  of 
endless  happiness  and  bliss.  She  died,  October  11,  1703,  at 
Edinburgh,  and  was  buried  in  my  burying-place,  near  the  Canon- 
gate  church,  where  I have  caused  mark  out  a grave  for  myself 
close  by  hers,  upon  the  left  side,  in  the  middle  of  the  ground. 

‘‘  Marchmont.” 

From  her  tender  years.  Lady  Baillie  had  been  a constant  help 
and  support  to  her  father’s  family ; and  even  after  she  became 
the  mother  of  a family  herself,  she  was  still  useful  to  them  in 
many  respects.  From  the  time  that  her  brother  Alexander,  Lord 
Polwarth,  went  abroad  in  1716  (in  consequence  of  his  appoint- 
ment, the  year  before,  to  be  envoy  extraordinary  to  the  courts  of 
Denmark  and  Prussia),  and  all  the  time  he  was  at  Copenhagen 
and  Cambray,  she  had  the  whole  management  of  his  affairs,  and 
the  care  of  the  education  of  his  children.  It  may  also  be  men- 
tioned, as  an  evidence  of  the  care  she  continued  to  take  of  her 
father,  that,  during  the  last  years  of  his  life,  which  he  passed 
at  Berwick-upon-Tweed,  she  went  to  Scotland  every  alternate  year 
to  see  him  ; and  the  infirmities  of  old  age  unfitting  him  for  taking 
the  trouble  of  looking  after  his  own  affairs,  she  examined  and 
settled  his  steward’s  accounts,  which  were  often  long  and  intri- 
cate. ‘‘Very  unlike  too  many  married  women,”  says  Joanna 
Baillie,  “ who,  in  taking  upon  them  the  duties  of  a wife  and 
mother,  suffer  these  to  absorb  every  other  ; and  visit  their  father’s 


452 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


house  seldom,  and  as  a stranger,  who  has  nothing  to  do  there  but 
to  be  served  and  waited  upon.  If  misfortune  or  disease  come 
upon  their  parents,  it  is  the  single  daughters  only  who  seem  to 
be  concerned  in  all  this.  She  who  is  a neglectful  daughter,  is 
an  attentive  wife  and  mother  from  a mean  cause.”*  When  in 
London,  Lady  Baiilie  regularly  wrote  every  other  post  to  her 
father,  or  to  her  sister,  Lady  Julian,  who  then  lived  with  him, 
and  watched  over  his  declining  years  with  affectionate  care  ; 
sent  him  the  newspapers,  and  any  new  book  or  pamphlet  which 
she  thought  would  interest  him.  Amid  the  infirmities  of  old  age, 
the  good  man  retained  all  the  kindly  cheerfulness  of  his  earlier 
days  ; and  this  made  his  society  delightful  to  the  youngest  of  his 
descendants — the  means  both  of  improvement  and  of  enjoyment. 
To  join  the  useful  with  the  agreeable  in  social  intercourse,  and 
indeed  in  the  whole  business  of  life,  was  a principle  upon  which 
he  seems  studiously  to  have  acted  ; and  hence  the  device  which 
is  constantly  found  in  his  books  and  manuscripts  : — 

“ ‘ Omne  tulit  punctura,  qui  miscuit  utile  dulci.’  H.  D.  A.^’t 

Even  on  his  death-bed  he  could  not  resist  his  old  propensity  to 
joking.  Sitting  by  his  bedside,  not  many  hours  before  he  ex- 
pired, Lord  Binning  observed  him  smiling,  and  said,  “ My  lord, 
what  are  you  laughing  at?”  To  which  the  dying  earl  answered, 
“ I am  diverted  to  think  what  a disappointment  the  worms  will 
meet  with,  when  they  come  to  me,  expecting  a good  meal,  and 
find  nothing  but  bones  !”  He  was  much  emaciated  in  body,  and 
indeed  he  had  always  been  a thin,  clever  man.  None  of  his 
family  were  then  in  Scotland,  except  his  daughter  Lady  Julian, 
who  attended  him,  and  his  son-in-law.  Lord  Binning,  who  no 
sooner  heard  from  Lady  Julian  of  her  father’s  illness,  than  he 
hastened  to  visit  him,  and  continued  with  him  till  his  death.  He 
expired  without  a groan,  and  seemed  to  rejoice  in  the  prospect 
of  his  departure.  Lady  Baiilie  had  not  the  satisfaction  of  seeing 
him  under  his  last  illness.  On  hearing  of  his  death,j;  she  was 
deeply  affected,  though,  from  his  advanced  age,  it  was  an  event 
which  could  hardly  take  her  by  surprise. 

She  met  with  another  domestic  affliction,  which  she  deeply 
felt,  in  the  death  of  the  amiable  and  accomplished  Lord  Bin- 

Metrical  Legends  of  Exalted  Characters,  p.  270. 

t The  last  three  letters  are  a contraction  for  Horace's  “ De  Arte  Poetica."  Some- 
times he  writes  the  quotation  more  briefly,  thus : — 

“ ‘ Omne  tiilit  punctum.’  H D.  A.” 

— The  Marchmont  Papers. 

t He  died  in  1724,  in  the  eighty-fourth  year  of  his  age. 


LADY  BAILLIE  OF  JERVIS  WOOD. 


453 


ning,*  the  husband  of  her  daughter  Rachel,  in  1733.  Having 
fallen  into  ill  health,  he  went  to  Italy,  for  the  benefit  of  the  cli- 
mate, and,  having  lived  at  Naples  for  some  time,  he  died  there 
on  January  30,  that  year,  in  the  thirty-sixth  year  of  his  age,  hav- 
ing borne  his  sufferings  with  the  utmost  patience,  resignation, 
and  even  cheerfulness  and  good  humor.  To  this  nobleman  she 
was  as  strongly  attached  as  if  he  had  been  her  own  child,  and 
she  and  her  whole  family  accompanied  him  to  Italy.  They  re- 
sided in  Naples  about  sixteen  months. 

On  the  death  of  Lord  Binning,  they  went  to  Oxford,  for  the 
education  of  his  children,!  Thomas,  afterward  seventh  earl  of 
Haddington,  and  his  two  brothers.  For  Lord  Binning’s  chil- 
dren, Lady  Baillie  had  a strong  affection.  She  was  not  without 
ambition  of  their  rising  to  distinction  in  the  world,  “ and  omitted 
nothing  she  could  devise  to  further  them  this  way ; but  yet, 
whenever  she  spoke  about  them,  the  great  thing  she  expressed 
herself  with  most  concern  about  was  that  they  might  become 
virtuous  and  religious  men.”! 

While  resident  in  Oxford,  she  met  with  a trial,  in  the  death  of 
Mr.  Baillie,  which,  perhaps,  inflicted  a heavier  blow  on  her 
heart  than  any  of  the  past  afflictions  of  her  life.  He  died  there, 
on  sabbath,  August  6,  1738,  after  an  illness  of  only  forty-eight 
hours,  in  the  seventy-fifth  year  of  his  age.  He  had  lived  an 
eminently  pious  and  exemplary  life,  and  his  latter  end  was  peace. 
During  the  whole  time  of  his  illness,  he  was  employed  in  breath- 
ing out  prayers  to  his  God  and  Savior,  for  his  own  salvation,  and 
that  of  his  family.  He  departed  with  a calm,  serene  countenance, 
and  v^^ith  scarce  a groan.  His  body  was  sent  home  to  be  interred 
in  his  own  burying-place,  at  Mellerstain ; attended,  according 
to  his  own  orders,  which  Lady  Baillie  was  careful  to  have  exe- 
cuted, only  by  his  near  relations,  near  neighbors,  and  his  own 
tenants.  Under  this  bereavement,  it  was  difficult  for  her  to  bear 
up.  From  the  peculiar  tenderness  of  her  feelings,  she  was  al- 
ways extremely  susceptible  to  the  emotions  of  sorrow  on  the  loss 
of  friends.  But  when,  in  her  old  age,  she  was  bereft  of  the  ex- 
cellent companion  to  whom  she  had  been  so  long  united,  whom 

* Like  Lady  Baillie,  Lord  Binning  possessed  an  elegant  talent  for  song-writing. 
He  was  the  author  of  Pastoral  Ballads.  His  ballad  beginning  “Did  ever  swain  a 
nymph  adore,”  has  long  been  well  known. — Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  i , p.  684.  Rit- 
Bon’s  Collection  of  Scottish  Songs,  vol.  i.,  p.  73. 

t He  had  “committed  and  recommended  to  Mr.  Baillie’s  care  the  education 
of  his  children,  and  said  he  needed  give  no  directions  about  it,  since  he  was  to  do 
it.  What  he  wished  most  earnestly  was  to  have  them  good  and  hoaest  men,  which 
be  knew  would  also  be  Mr.  Baillie’s  chief  care.” — Lady  Murray’s  Narrative. 

X Lady  Murray’s  Narrative. 


454 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


she  called  “ the  best  of  husbands,  and  delight  of  my  life  for  forty- 
eight  years  and  as  to  whom  she  often  declared,  “ that  they  never 
had  a shadow  of  a quarrel  or  misunderstanding,  no,  not  for  a mo- 
ment it  is  not  surprising  that  she  was  almost  overwhelmed  by 
the  stroke,  and  that  hers  was  a sorrow  which  could  not  altogether 
be  assuaged  on  this  side  of  the  grave.  The  account  which  Lady 
Murray  gives  of  her  mother’s  sorrow  under  this  loss  is  very 
touching.  ‘‘  When  she  lost  him,  her  affliction  was  so  great  that 
it  threw  her  into  a dangerous  fit  of  illness,  which,  with  joy,  she 
would  have  allowed  herself  to  sink  under,  had  she  not  thought 
her  life  was  still  necessary  for  the  happiness  of  her  family ; as 
Sir  Alexander  Murray  then  threatened,  by  long  letters  writ  to  us, 
to  give  us  a great  deal  of  trouble  and  disturbance,  which  could 
not  well  take  place  unless  he  outlived  her.  . . . She  stayed  near 
two  years  longer  at  Oxford,  as  long  as  it  was  thought  fit  for  her 
grandsons,  though  the  most  melancholy,  disagreeable  place  she 
could  be  in,  far  from  friends,  and  no  business  to  amuse,  or  take 
off  her  thoughts  from  her  heavy  loss  ; so  that  the  sedentary  life 
she  led,  which  she  had  never  been  used  to,  again  threw  her  into 
a long  and  dangerous  fit  of  illness,  in  which  her  life  was  despaired 
of  by  every  one.”  And  after  stating  that  her  mother  and  the  whole 
family  came,  in  1740,  to  London,  and  thence  immediately  to 
Scotland,  Lady  Murray  adds,  “ Everything  at  home  so  continu- 
ally renewed  her  grief,  that  scarce  a day  passed  without  her 
bursting  out  in  tears  ; though  she  did  her  utmost  to  command  her- 
self, not  to  give  us  pain,  yet  it  often  overcame  her One 

day,  looking  round  and  admiring  the  beauties  of  the  place,  she 
checked  herself,  burst  out  in  tears,  and  said,  ‘ What  is  all  this 
to  me,  since  your  father  does  not  see  and  enjoy  it !’  Such  re- 
flections she  often  had,  and  neither  amusements  nor  business 
could  put  them  out  of  her  thoughts.  As  I almost  always  put  her 
to  bed,  I can  declare  I never  saw  her  lie  down  but  with  a deep 
groan,  and  generally  tears,  not  soon  to  be  pacified  ; nor  could  she 
be  persuaded  to  take  another  room,  choosing  everything  that 
could  put  her  in  mind  of  him.  She  had  some  hundreds  of  his 
letters,  he  having  been  often  at  London,  absent  from  her  for 
many  months  at  a time,  and  never  missed  writing  one  single 
post.  She  had  carefully  preserved  them  all,  and  set  about  read- 
ing of  them ; which  put  her  into  such  fits  of  grief  and  crying, 
quite  sunk  and  destroyed  her,  that  we  thought  it  would  kill  her. 
She  one  day  said  she  was  ashamed  to  be  alive,  after  losing  one 
that  had  writ  her  such  letters,  and  with  whom  she  could  have 
been  contented  to  live  on  the  top  of  a mountain,  on  bread  and 


LADY  J3AILLIE  OF  JERVISWOOD. 


455 


water;  and  had  no  pleasure  in  anything  but  for  his  sake. 
Happy,  said  she,  had  it  been  for  her,  if  she  had  constantly 
read  over  his  letters,  and  governed  her  whole  actions  by  them. 
She  intended  sealing  them  up  in  a bag,  and  bade  me  see  they 
were  buried  in  the  coffin  with  her.  I begged  to  read  some  of 
them,  which  she  allowed  me  ; and  I earnestly  entreated  they 
might  not  be  buried,  but  preserved  for  the  sake  of  his  posterity, 
and  they  are  now  in  my  custody.  In  nothing  I ever  saw  did  I 
find  so  much  to  instruct,  to  admire,  to  please  ; they  are  a true 
picture  of  his  heart ; full  of  the  most  tender  and  condescending 
affection,  just  remarks  and  reflections,  true  goodness,  submission 
to  Providence,  entire  resignation  and  contentment,  without  cant, 
superstition,  severity,  or  uncharitableness  to  others  ; constant 
justness  to  all,  and  frugality  in  his  private  affairs,  for  the  sake 
of  his  family.” 

In  September,  1744,  it  being  thought  proper  that  her  grand- 
sons should  go  to  London,  she  resolved  that  she  herself  and  her 
whole  family  should  go  with  them ; her  object  being,  as  they 
were  just  entering  into  the  world,  to  watch  over  them,  and  aid 
them  by  her  counsel  and  experience  ; though  she  owned  it  to  be 
her  desire,  as  was  most  natural,  to  end  her  days  in  quiet.  At 
the  same  time  she  felt  persuaded  that  she  should  not  return,  and 
desired  her  children,  in  the  event  of  her  dying  thereto  bring 
home  her  body  to  be  buried  beside  that  of  her  husband. 

“ The  rebellion  of  1745  was  a great  affliction  to  her ; the  dis- 
tress of  her  country  and  friends  went  near  her  heart,  and  made 
great  impression  on  her  health  and  spirits.  Nobody  could  be 
more  sensibly  touched  with  the  desolation  of  this  poor  country ; 
yet  she  never  expressed  herself  with  bitterness  nor  resentment 
against  the  authors  of  it,  and  could  not  bear  to  hear  others  do  so. 
She  said  it  was  the  judgment  of  God  upon  us,  and  too  well  de- 
;Served  by  all  ranks  ; therefore  we  ought  to  submit  to  it,  and  en- 
deavor to  avert  it  by  other  methods  than  railing  and  ill  will  at 
those  who  were  the  instruments  of  it.”  Her  religion  was  emi- 
nently free  from  a censorious  and  uncharitable  spirit  toward 
others.  Lady  Murray,  after  stating  that  her  mother  “ was  much 
devoted  to  piety,  and  the  service  of  God,”  adds,  “ People  who 
exercise  themselves  much  this  way,  are  often  observed  to  con- 
tract a morose  way  of  thinking  concerning  others,  which  she 
had  no  tincture  of.  Her  religion  improved  her  in  charity,  and 
patience  for  other  people’s  failings,  and  forgiveness  of  injuries  ; 
and,  no  doubt,  was  one  great  source  of  that  constant  cheerfulness 
she  was  so  remarkable  for.” 


456 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT.*^ 

While  in  London,  she  seldom  went  abroad,  except  to  visit 
Lady  Stanhope.  But,  in  her  own  children  and  grandchildren, 
she  enjoyed  the  most  agreeable  society  at  home  ; and  she  also 
found  much  pleasure  in  the  frequent  visits  paid  to  her  by  her  old 
friends  and  acquaintances,  as  well  as  by  several  new  ones,  who 
thought  no  time  better  spent  than  in  her  company.  At  last,  the 
time  drew  near  when  she  must  go  the  way  of  all  the  earth.  An 
epidemical  cold  being  prevalent  in  the  English  capital,  she 
caught  the  disease,  which,  after  hanging  about  her  for  some  time, 
terminated  fatally.  She  was,  however,  confined  to  her  bed  only 
a few  days,  and  there  was  no  aberration  of  mind,  to  the  last. 
Two  days  before  her  death,  her  family  being  all  in  the  room  be- 
side her,  she  said,  “ My  dears,  read  the  last  chapter  of  the  Prov- 
erbs ; you  know  what  it  is.”  “To  have  her  grandsons  happily 
married,”  says  Lady  Murray,  “ lay  near  her  heart ; and  I ima- 
gine it  was  with  regard  to  that  she  said  it.  I think  it  is  a very 
strong  picture  of  herself ; and  if  ever  any  deserve  to  have  it  said 
of  them,  she  does.”  Some  may  imagine,  that  thoughts  respect- 
ing the  happy  marriage  of  her  grandsons  was  scarcely  exercise 
appropriate  for  a deathbed.  But  this  would  be  to  take  a very 
imperfect  and  contracted  view  of  the  Christian  exercise  appro- 
priate in  such  circumstances.  No  doubt  the  greatest  questions 
to  every^nan  and  woman  when  about  to  enter  eternity,  and  ap- 
pear at  God’s  judgment-seat,  are,  “ Am  I at  peace  with  God  ?” 
“ Have  I obtained  that  renewed  heart  which  is  indispensable  to 
admission  into  heaven  ?”  “ Am  I trusting,  not  to  my  own  good 

works,  or  virtues,  but  exclusively  to  the  Divine  righteousness  of 
Christ ; an  interest  in  which  is  ^ually  indispensable  to  admis- 
sion into  heaven  ?”  But  while  ^1  true  Christians  will,  in  the 
prospect  of  death,  give  their  chief  thoughts  to  these  subjects, 
they  may,  at  the  same  time,  in  perfect  consistency  with  this, 
feel  an  interest  in  whatever  contributes  to  the  well-being,  both 
temporal  and  eternal,  of  their  friends  whom  they  are  to  leave  be- 
hind them  in  the  world ; and  to  this  a happy  marriage  relation,  which 
is  greatly  conducive  to  the  promotion  of  both  virtue  and  piety, 
unquestionally  contributes.  The  next  day  Lady  Baillie  called  for 
Lady  Murray,  to  whom  she  gave  directions  about  some  few 
things  ; and  expressed  it  as  her  desire  to  be  carried  home  and 
interred  beside  her  dear  husband  ; but  said,  that  perhaps  it  might 
be  too  much  trouble  and  inconvenience  to  them  at  that  season. 
She  therefore  left  it  to  Lady  Murray  to  do  as  she  pleased  ; “ but,” 
says  she,  “ in  a black  purse  in  my  cabinet  you  will  find  money 
sufficient  to  do  it.”  This  money  she  had  kept  by  her  for  that 


^ LADY  BAILLIE  OF  JERVISWOOD. 


457 


purpose,  that  whenever  her  death  took  place,  her  children  might 
be  able,  without  being  straitened,  to  carry  her  mortal  remains  to 
Scotland,  to  be  deposited  in  the  same  resting-place  with  those 
of  her  husband.  Having  said  this,  she  added,  I have  now  no 
more  to  say  or  do  tenderly  embraced  Lady  Murray,  and  laid 
down  her  head  upon  the  pillow,  after  which  she  spoke  little. 
True  Christians,  of  strong  and  warm  affections,  have  often  antici- 
pated with  delight,  the  recognition  of  their  beloved  pious  friends 
and  relatives  in  heaven,  expecting  to  derive,  from  this  source,  no 
small  portion  of  their  future  felicity.  Lady  Baillie  always  ex- 
pressed her  assurance,  that  she  and  Mr.  Baillie,  who  had  so  long 
lived  together  on  earth,  as  heirs  of  the  grace  of  life,  would  meet 
together  and  know  one  another  in  a better  world ; and  she  often 
said  after  his  death,  that  without  that  belief  she  could  not  have 
supported  herself.  This  reflection  was  cheering  to  her  even 
when  dying.  “ Now,  my  dear,”  said  she  to  Lady  Murray,  “ I 
can  die  in  peace,  and  desire  nothing  but  to  be  where  your  father 
is.”  She  died  on  December  6,  1746,  surrounded  by  her  whole 
family,  who  showed  a lively  sense  of  what  they  lost  when  she 
breathed  her  last.  According  to  her  desire,  her  body  was  con- 
veyed from  London  to  Scotland  ; and,  on  Christmas  day,  Decem- 
ber 25,  which  was  her  birth-day,  was  laid  by  the  side  of  her 
husband  in  the  monument  of  Mellerstain.  She  was  buried  in 
the  same  manner  in  which,  according  to  his  own  orders,  she 
herself  had  directed  his  funeral — near  relations,  near  neighbors, 
and  her  own  tenants,  only,  being  present. 

Lady  Baillie  had  been  universally  respected  while  living,  and 
she  died  universally  lamented.  In  her  death,  many  lost  not  only 
a friend,  but  a benefactor  ; for  she  was  very  charitable  to  the  dis- 
tressed ; remembering  what  she  herself  had  suffered ; nor  was 
her  beneficence  confined  to  those  of  her  own  way  of  thinking.* 
The  esteem  in  which  she  was  held,  was  testified  by  the  many 
letters  of  condolence,  which,  on  the  event,  her  family  received 
from  all  quarters.  Lord  Cornbury,  writing  to  Lady  Hervey  on 
her  death,  says  : “ Indeed,  I am  sorry  that  we  shall  see  our  good 
old  friend  no  more.  I am  sorry  that  we  shall  partake  no  more 
in  the  society  of  that  hospitality,  that  benevolence,  that  good 
humor,  that  good  sense,  that  cheerful  dignity,  the  result  of  so 
many  virtues  which  were  so  amiable  in  her,  and  what  did  so 
much  honor  to  humanity ; and  I am  very  sorry  for  what  those 

* The  very  last  week  of  her  life  she  sent  a servant  to  Newgate  to  inquire  after 
one  she  heard  was  there  in  distress,  and  to  give  him  some  relief,  though  she  had 
r:cver  seen  him,  but  knew  his  friends.  ' — Lady  Murray’s  Narrative. 

39 


45S 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


must  suffer  at  present,  whom  she  had  bred  up  to  have  affections, 
and  who  had  so  justly  so  much  for  her.’  Lady  Baillie  in  truth, 
possessed  a combination  of  qualities  not  often  to  be  met  with  in 
the  same  person ; and  which  would  have  adorned  the  most  ex- 
alted station.  “ It  appears  to  me,”  says  Joanna  Baillie,  “ that  a 
more  perfect  female  character  could  scarcely  be  imagined ; for, 
while  she  is  daily  exercised  in  all  that  is  useful,  enlivening,  and 
endearing,  her  wisdom  and  courage,  on  every  extraordinary  and 
dillicult  occasion,  gave  a full  assurance  to  the  mind,  that  the  de- 
voted daughter  of  Sir  Patrick  Hume,  and  the  tender  helpmate 
of  Baillie,  would  have  made  a most  able  and  magnanimous 
queen.”*  The  inscription  engraven  on  marble  upon  her  monu- 
ment, which  was  written  by  one  who  knew  her  well,  Sir  Thomas 
Burnet,  one  of  the  judges  of  the  court  of  common  pleas,  and 
youngest  son  of  Bishop  Burnet,  summarily  records  the  leading 
and  most  singular  events  of  her  life,  and  gives  a full,  compre- 
hensive, and  withal  a just  view  of  her  character.  This  inscrip- 
tion, with  which  we  shall  conclude  our  sketch,  is  as  follows  : — 

HERE  LIETH 

The  Right  Honorable  Lady  Grisell  Baillie, 
wife  of  George  Baillie  of  Jerviswood,  Esq., 
eldest  daughter 

of  the  Right  Honorable,  Patrick,  Earl  of  March mont ; 
a pattern  to  her  sex,  and  an  honor  to  her  country. 

She  excelled  in  the  character  of  a daughter,  a wife,  a mother. 

While  an  infant,} 

at  the  hazard  of  her  own,  she  preserved  her  father’s  life; 
who  under  the  rigorous  persecution  of  arbitrary  power, 
sought  refuge  in  the  close  confinement  of  a tomb, 
where  he  was  nightly  supplied  with  necessaries,  conveyed  by  her, 
with  a caution  far  above  her  years, 
a courage  almost  above  her  sex  ; 
a real  instance  of  the  so  much  celebrated  Roman  charity. 

She  was  a shining  example  of  conjugal  affection, 
that  knew  no  dissension,  felt  no  decline, 
during  almost  a fifty  years'  union  ; 
the  dissolution  of  w^hich  she  survived  from  duty,  not  choice. 

Her  conduct  as  a parent 
was  amiable,  exemplary,  successful, 
to  a degree  not  well  to  be  expressed, 
without  mixing  the  praises  of  the  dead  with  those  of  the  living ; 
who  desire  that  all  praise,  but  of  her,  should  be  silent. 

At  different  times  she  managed  the  affairs 
of  her  father,  her  husband,  her  family,  her  relations, 
with  unwearied  application,  w’ith  happy  economy, 
as  distant  from  avarice  as  from  prodigality. 

Christian  piety,  love  of  her  country, 
zeal  for  her  friends,  compassion  for  her  enemies, 
cheerfulness  of  spirit,  pleasantness  of  conversation, 
dignity  of  mind, 

• Metrical  Legends  of  Exalted  Characters,  Preface,  p.  xxvi.  t See  p.  433,  Note 


DUCHESS  OF  ATHOLL. 


459 


good  breeding,  good  humor,  good  sense, 
were  the  daily  ornaments  of  a useful  life, 
protracted  by  Providence  to  an  uncommon  length, 
for  the  benefit  of  all  who  fell  within  the  sphere  of  her  benevolence. 
Full  of  years  and  of  good  wo|'ks, 
she  died  on  the  6th  day  of  December,  1746, 
near  the  end  of  her  8ist  year, 
and  was  buried  on  her  birthday,  the  25th  of  that  month. 


LADY  CATHARINE  HAMILTON, 

DUCHESS  OF  ATHOLL 

Among  the  “ devout  and  honorable  women  not  a few”  in  our 
country,  who,  in  former  times,  adorned  a high  station  by  their 
exalted  piety  and  their  zeal  for  God,  the  subject  of  the  present 
notice  is  entitled  to  a prominent  place.  It  is  chiefly  from  her 
diary*  that  we  derive  the  information  we  possess  concerning  her, 
and  it  is  mostly  a record  of  her  Christian  exercise  and  experi- 
ence ; so  that  few  incidents  in  her  history  are  now  known.  Her 
life,  indeed,  appears  to  have  been  of  a regular  and  little  varying 
tenor,  hardly  connected  with  any  of  those  signal  events  and  con- 
junctures which  give  to  biography  much  of  its  attraction  ; and  a 
sketch  of  it  does  not,  therefore,  admit  of  a varied  and  striking 
narrative.  But  it  may,  notwithstanding,  be  interesting  and  in- 
structive to  the  serious  reader,  to  peruse  a few  illustrations  of 
her  eminently  devout  and  Christian  character.  To  those  ladies 
who  have  already  engaged  our  attention,  she  was  similar  in  spirit 
and  in  sentiments  ; • and  she  could  look  back  to  many  of  her  an- 
cestors, on  whom  God  had  conferred  the  highest  of  all  nobility, 
the  titles  of  which  “ are  not  written  in  old  rotten  or  moulded 
parchments,  but  are  more  ancient  than  the  heavens.”  She  com- 
menced her  diary  about  the  year  1688,  in  the  twenty-fifth  year 
of  her  age,  and  continued  it  down  to  the  period  of  her  death. 
From  the  commencement,  it  displays  remarkably  sound  views  of 
evangelical  truth,  and  much  maturity  of  religious  experience ; 
and  throughout,  it  breathes  a spirit  singularly  amiable,  and  fer- 
vently pious.  As  many  parts  of  it  are  very  much  alike,  instead 
of  giving  it  entire,  it  will  be  sufficient  to  select  a few  passages 
as  a representation  of  the  general  character  of  the  whole. 

^ Her  diary  is  printed  in  the  Christian  Magazine,  for  1813,  to  which  it  was  com- 
municated by  the  late  Rev.  Mr.  Moncrieff*,  minister  of  the  secession  Church  in  Ham- 
ilton. 


460 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


Catharine  Hamilton  was  the  second  daughter  of  William, 
third  duke  of  Hamilton,  and  Anne,  duchess  of  Hamilton,  of  whom 
a notice  has  already  been  given.  She  was  born  at  Hamilton 
palace  in  1662,  and  in  1683  was  married  to  John  Lord  Murray, 
eldest  son  of  the  first  marquis  of  Atholl,  afterward  first  duke  of 
Atholl,  in  the  twenty-first  year  of  her  age.  She  enjoyed  the 
great  blessing  of  an  eminently  pious  mother,  who  anxiously  en- 
deavored to  imbue  her  young  mind  with  divine  truth  and  the  fear 
of  God.  Under  this  religious  training  she  greatly  profited;  and 
she  appears  to  have  been  from  her  earliest  years  of  a serious  and 
contemplative  turn  of  mind.  At  an  early  period  she  had  acquired 
an  extensive  acquaintance  with  the  Scriptures,  and  an  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  distinguishing  truths  of  the  gospel.  Nor  did 
this  knowledge  merely  float  in  the  head ; it  deeply  impressed 
her  heart,  resulting  in  early  proofs  of-  her  genuine  piety.  Near 
the  beginning  of  her  diary  there  is  the  following  entry : — 

O my  soul!  remember  Friday  the  18th  of  November,  1681, 
and  Thursday  the  24th,  wherein  the  Lord  thy  God  was  pleased 
to  give  thee  sweetest  consolation  in  himself,  and  some  assurance 
of  his  reconciled  countenance  at  Hamilton.” 

This  was  in  the  nineteenth  year  of  her  age,  two  years  previ- 
ous to  her  marriage.  But  her  husband,  in  a note  on  this  pas- 
sage, states  that  he  had  heard  her  say  that  she  had  given  herself 
up  to  God  some  years  before  the  time  referred  to.  Thus,  ere 
she  had  reached  womanhood,  she  had  surrendered  herself  to  God, 
and  the  whole  of  her  subsequent  life  evinced  the  entireness  and 
the  sincerity  with  which  the  surrender  had  been  made.  Christ 
she  then  chose  as  her  Savior,  God  as  her  portion,  the  Divine 
glory  as  her  chief  end,  the  Divine  law  as  her  infallible  guide ; 
and  from  her  God  and  Savior  she  sought  and  found  grace  and 
strength  to  proceed  in  the  Christian  course.  It  is  indeed  inter- 
esting to  see  a young  lady  in  exalted  station  thus  escaping  the 
fascinations  of  worldly  pleasure  and  gayety,  with  which  the 
young  are  so  apt  to  be  entangled,  and  making  the  concerns  of 
the  soul  and  of  eternity,  which  the  young  are  so  prone  to  defer 
to  a future  season,  the  chief  object  of  her  attention  : — 

“ Lady,  that  in  the  prime  of  earliest  youth 
Wisely  hast  shunned  the  broad  way  and  the  green, 

And  with  those  few  art  eminently  seen, 

That  labor  up  the  hill  of  heavenly  truth, 

The  better  part  witli  Mary  and  with  Ruth, 

Chosen  thou  hast.”^ 

In  her  diary  the  allusions  to  the  period  of  the  persecution  are 
^ Milton. 


DUCHESS  OF  ATHOLL. 


461 


few  and  only  casual,  but  they  plainly  indicate  her  detestation  of 
the  ferocious  intolerance  of  that  period,  and  her  sympathy  with 
those  good  men  who,  for  standing  up  in  defence  of  their  religious 
rights  and  liberties,  were  banished  to  foreign  climes,  or  pined  in 
dungeons,  or  whose  blood  was  shed  on  scalfolds.  Speaking  of 
the  forfeiture  of  the  estate  of  the  earl  of  Argyll,  which  took  place 
in  the  close  of  the  year  1681,  and  of  the  marquis  of  Atholl,  who 
raised  and  headed  some  of  the  troops  which  were  afterward  led 
against  the  earl,  having  accepted  and  retained  some  of  his  for- 
feited lands,  she  says,  “ I was  always  convinced  that  it  was  a 
most  unjust  forfeiture  that  of  the  late  earl  of  Argyll,  and  so  was 
grieved  that  my  husband’s  father  should  have  any  part  of  it  given 
to  him.”  At  the  same  time  she  records,  with  much  satisfaction, 
that  her  husband  had  no  hand  in  the  oppression  of  the  Argyll 
family,  and  would  never  consent  to  share  in  the  spoils.  “ My 
husband,”  says  she.  “ had  no  part  in  it  [the  forfeited  estate],  and 
did  at  the  time  disapprove  of  his  father’s  meddling  with  it,  and 
would  never,  though  he  pressed  him  to  it,  take  anything  of  it.” 

After  the  persecution  had  closed,  she  took  a deep  interest  in 
the  prosperity  of  the  presbyterian  church  ; and  knowing  that  the 
gospel  is  “the  power  of  God  unto  salvation,”  she  was  particu- 
larly concerned  that  the  parishes  of  Scotland  should  be  supplied 
with  devoted  evangelical  ministers.  Lay  patronage  having 
been  abolished  at  the  revolution,  her  husband  had  not  the  power 
of  presenting  ministers  to  vacant  parishes  ; but  as  the  heritors  of 
each  parish,  being  protestants,  and  the  elders,  were  to  propose  a 
suitable  person  to  the  congregation,  to  be  either  approved  or  dis- 
approved by  them,*  heritors  and  elders,  it  is  obvious,  had  great 
influence  in  the  settlement  of  ministers  ; and  she  was  extremely 
desirous  that  her  husband  should  use  this  influence  in  procuring 
the  settlement  of  pious  and  able  gospel  ministers.  To  prevail 
on  him  to  do  this,  her  prayers  and  counsel  were  not  wanting  ; 
and,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  they  had  the  desired  effect.  Wri- 
ting at  Falkland,  May  9,  1691,  in  reference  to  the  settlement  of 
a minister  in  that  place,  she  says  : “ O Lord,  help  me  always  to 
remember  thy  goodness  to  me.  Thou  hast  many  times  prevented 
me  with  thy  mercies,  and  disappointed  my  fears  ; and  now  again, 
lately,  I have  had  another  proof  of  it.  Thou  only  knowest  what 
a burden  it  was  to  me,  the- fear  I was  in  that  my  husband  should 
have  obstructed  a good  minister  being  settled  in  this  place  ; and 
now,  glory  to  God  that  has  given  me  to  see  him  the  main,  nay, 

The  reasons  of  the  congregation,  if  they  disapproved  of  the  person  proposed, 
were  to  be  laid  before  the  pres%tery,  which  was  to  judge  of  them. 

39* 


462 


THE  LADIES  OE  THE  COVENANT. 


I may  say  the  only  instrument  of  bringing  a godly  minister,  the 
Rev.  Mr.  John  Forrest,  to  this  place.  O Lord,  grant  he  may  in 
the  first  place  reap  the  benefit  of  his  ministry  to  himself,  and 
bless  it  in  a special  manner  to  him^  that  he,  finding  the  good  of 
it,  may  yet  be  more  instrumental  in  bringing  in  good  ministers  to 
the  places  he  has  interest  in.” 

Falkland  at  that  time  was  a very  irreligious  and  profane  place. 
During  the  persecution,  though  there  were  in  it  a few  intelligent 
and  pious  persons,  who  refused  to  conform  to  prelacy,  and  to 
whom  Mr.  John  Wei  wood  and  other  proscribed  ministers  fre- 
quently preached  privately  in  some  of  their  houses,  yet  the  great 
body  of  the  population  had  no  scruples  in  conforming  to  prelacy ; 
so  that  when  the  curate  of  the  parish  dispensed  the  sacrament 
of  the  Lord’s  Supper,  a great  multitude  assembled,  and  he  could 
boast,  what  many  of  his  brethren  could  not  do,  of  the  large  num- 
ber on  his  communicants’  roll.*  In  this  place,  where  “ Satan 
had  his  seat  in  much  peace,”!  where  ignorance  and  profanity  so 
greatly  abounded,  it  could  not  be  expected  that  the  people  would 
set  much  value  upon  the  gospel,  or  that  they  would  feel  anything 
like  a general  desire  for  the  settlement  of  an  evangelical  and  de- 
voted minister  among  them.  It  was  therefore  a very  merciful 
providence  that  others,  who  better  understood  and  appreciated 
the  worth  of  an  efhcient  gospel  ministry,  successfully  exerted 
themselves  in  procuring  for  them  this  great  blessing. 

At  this  time,  the  subject  of  our  notice  was  residing  at  Falkland 
palace,  which  was  a favorite  retreat  of  James  VL,  probably  on 
account  of  his  attachment  to  hunting,  for  which  the  adjacent  for- 
est afforded  excellent  opportunities,  but  which,  after  his  acces- 
sion to  the  crown  of  England,  ceased  to  be  a royal  residence, 
though  it  was  visited  by  Charles  1.  aad  Charles  11.  In  1658,  it 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Atholl  family.  From  the  entries  in  her 
diary.  Lady  Murray  appears  residing  there  from  January,  1689, 
till  May,  1691. 

During  this  period  her  husband  was  threatened  with  a con- 
sumption, and  his  health  continued  for  more  than  a year  in  a very 
precarious  state.  This  caused  her  deep  anxiety ; and  her  re- 
flections in  regard  to  his  condition,  evince  the  struggle  she  felt 
between  natural  aflection  and  submission  to  the  will  of  God. 
Writing  at  Cupar,  sabbath,  May  17,  1691,  after  adverting  to  his 
illness,  she  adds,  “ Thou  knowest  that  I have  this  day  promised 
if  thou  wilt  be  pleased  to  spare  and  recover  him,  to  endeavor, 
through  thy  strength,  to  live  more  watchfully  and  holily ; but, 

* Diary  of  Jean  Coliace,  Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxxi.,  8vo,  No.  7.  t Ibid. 


DUCHESS  OF  ATHOLL. 


46: 


ah ! Lord,  how  unable  am  I for  anything  that  is  good,  if  thou  as- 
sist me  not.  True  is  thy  word  which  thou  hast  said,  holy  Jesus  ! 
that  without  thee  we  can  do  nothing,  John  xv.  5.  But  I shall 
be  able  to  do  all  things,  even  the  hardest,  if  thou  assist.  There- 
fore, this  day,  with  all  my  soul  I beg  of  thee,  that  thou  wilt  give  me 
entire  submission  to  thy  holy  will  and  pleasure,  whatever  it  shall 
be : that  even  if  thou  shouldst  see  fit  to  take  away  the  desire  of  mine 
eyes,  I may  lay  my  hand  on  my  mouth  and  be  silent,  since  it  is 
thy  doing,  who  canst  do  nothing  wrong.  And  be  with  me  in  the 
midst  of  my  troubles,  and  support  me  under  them,  as  thou  hast  been 
graciously  pleased  to  do  this  time  and  heretofore,  or  which  I de- 
sire, from  the  bottom  of  my  soul,  to  bless  and  magnify  thy  name, 
who  canst  abundantly  make  up  the  loss  of  all  earthly  comforts. 
Be  thou,  then,  in  place  of  all  unto  me,  blessed  Jesus ! and  let 
never  any  idol  be  in  my  heart  when  thou  oughtest  to  be  in  the 
chief  room.  But  thou  hast  not  only  allowed  of  a lawful  love  to 
my  husband,  but  commanded  me  to  have  it.  Therefore,  it  is 
lawful,  and  my  duty,  to  pray  for  him.  Spare  him,  O Lord  ! for 
Christ’s  sake,  and  bless  binl  with  long  life  in  this  world,  that  he 
may  glorify  thee  in  his  generation,  and  be  an  instrument  of  doing 
good  to  the  people  among  whom  thou  hast  set  him,  and  be  a blessing 
to  bis  family.  O God,  hear  me  ! and  grant  unto  me,  for  Christ’s 
sake,  O grant,  that  the  shaking  of  this  rod  over  my  head  may  be 
a mean  to  bring  me  back  to  my  duty,  which  it  will  be,  if  thou 
grant  thy  blessing  with  it,  which  I beg  for  thy  Son’s  sake,  for 
whose  sake  alone  I desire  to  be  heard.” 

She  afterward  records  her  gratitude  to  God  for  her  husband’s 
recovery  to  health. 

Having  resolved,  in  the  summer  of  1697,  to  go  to  Hamilton  to 
visit  her  mother,  and  to  enjoy  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord’s  sup- 
per, which  was  to  be  celebrated  there  on  the  19th  of  July,  she 
spent  the  sabbath  preceding  at  Edinburgh,  where  her  husband, 
now  earl  of  Tullibardine,*  then  was.  She  was  careful,  at  all 
times,  to  sanctify  the  Lord’s  day,  but  this  being  the  sabbath  pre- 
ceding that  on  which  she  purposed  to  commemorate  the  Lord’s 
death  in  the  sacrament  of  the  supper,  she  endeavored  in  a par- 
ticular manner,  by  meditation  and  prayer,  to  have  her  mind 
brought  into  a suitable  frame  for  the  solemn  service  which  she  had 
in  prospect.  “ Edinburgh,  Sunday,  July  12,  1697.  O my  soul, 
bless  God  the  Lord  that  ever  he  put  it  into  thy  heart  to  seek  him, 
for  he  hath  promised  that  those  that  seek  him  shall  find  him. 

* He  was  created  earl  of  Tullibardine,  Viscount  Glen  Almond,  and  Lord  Murray^ 
for  life,  Jub'  27,  1696. 


464 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


This  day  I was  reading  the  16th  chapter  of  John,  verses  23,  24, 
‘ Verily,  verily,  I say  unto  you,  whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  the  Fa- 
ther in  my  name,  he  will  give  it  you,’  &c.  O gracious  promises  \ 
Then  I began  to  think  what  it  was  I would  ask  of  God.  The 
thought  that  immediately  occurred  to  me  was,  Jesus  Christ  to 
dwell  in  my  heart  by  faith  and  love.  Methought,  that  if  God 
would  put  it  in  my  offer  to  have  all  the  universe,  with  all  the 
glory,  honor,  riches,  and  splendor  of  it,  I would  rather  have 
Christ,  to  be  my  King,  Priest,. and  Prophet,  than  have  it  all.  O 
that  he  would  always  rule  in  me,  and  conquer  all  his  and  my  en- 
emies— my  corruptions,  temptations,  and  sins,  I mean — and  al- 
ways assist  and  strengthen  me  to  serve  him  faithfully  and  up- 
rightly. Now,  blessed  Jesus,  thou  who  hast  said,  ‘ Whatsoever 
we  ask  in  thy  name,  the  Father  will  give  it,’  this  is  my  petition 
and  my  request : fulfil  thy  word  to  me.  Thou  art  faithful  that 
hast  promised : therefore  I desire  to  believe  and  trust  that  thou 
wilt  perform.  O never  forsake  me,  nor  leave  me  to  myself. 
Lord,  I do  believe  and  hope  that  thou  wilt,  through  the  riches  of 
free  grace,  and  thy  meritorious  satisfaction,  redeem  and  save  me 
from  eternal  death  and  damnation  ; but  I beg  not  only  so,  but  to 
be  redeemed  from  the  power  of  sin,  corruption,  and  vain  imagi- 
nations. Oh  ! they  are  strong  and  stirring.  O wilt  thou  not  sub- 
due them  ! Lord  I desire  to  obey  thee,  and  to  be  of  good  cheer, 
and  believe  that,  as  thou  hast  overcome  the  world,  so  thou  wilt 
overcome  my  sins,  in  thy  own  due  and  appointed  time.  And 
now.  Lord,  thou  knowest  I am  designing,  if  thou  shalt  permit,  to 
partake  of  thy  holy  supper.  O,  prepare  me  for  it,  and  let  me  not 
be  an  unworthy  receiver.  Do  thou  there  meet  with  my  soul,  and 
renew  thy  covenant  and  faithfulness  unto  me,  and  enlarge  my 
heart  and  soul,  and  give  me  supplies  of  grace  and  strength  to 
serve  thee.  Oh  ! I have  often  played  the  harlot,  and  gone  astray 
with  many  lovers,  Jer.  hi.  1.  Yet  thou  sayest.  Return  again 
unto  me,  and  often,  as  in  this  chapter  invitest  me  to  return.  O 
Lord,  I come  unto  thee,  for  thou  art  the  Lord,  my  covenanted 
God.  Thou  knowest  that,  this  day,  I know  not  of  any  fraud  or 
guile  in  this  declaration.  If  there  be.  Lord,  search  me  and  try 
me,  and  discover  it  unto  me,  and  take  it  away,  and  cleanse  me 
from  all  mine  iniquities.  O let  this  be  my  mercy  this  day.” 

By  the  observance  of  the  Lord’s  supper  at  this  time,  she  was 
much  refreshed  and  comforted.  On  the  Wednesday  after,  she 
solemnly  calls  upon  her  soul  not  to  forget  to  render  to  God  thanks- 
giving and  praise,  for  having  dealt  so  bountifully  and  mercifully 
with  her.  ‘‘  Thou  hast  been  pleased,”  she  says,  “ to  give  me  at 


DUCHESS  OF  ATHOLL. 


465 


this  time,  what  thou  wast  graciously  pleased  to  do,  the  last  two 
times  I communicated,  namely,  a promise  in  Scripture,  which 
thou  madest  me  formerly  believe  in,  and  rest  quietly  upon,  which 
was  the  16th  verse  of  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  John:  ‘I  have 
chosen  you,  and  ordained  you,  that  ye  should  go  and  bring  forth 
fruh;,  and  that  your  fruit  should  remain  ; that  whatsoever  ye  shall 
ask  of  the  Father,  in  my  name,  he  may  give  it  you.’.  ...  A little 
before  going  to  thy  table,  thou  knowest  what  darkness  and  con- 
fusedness I had,  though  still,  blessed  be  thy  holy  name ! there 
remained  the  hope  and  confidence  of  thy  being  reconciled  to  me 
through  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  represented  to  me  at  thy  table,  as 
shed  for  my  sins  ; but  thou  wast  most  graciously  pleased  before  1 
went  to  thy  table,  to  make  me  go  there  with  solid  peace  and  sat- 
isfaction, hrmly  believing  that  thou  calledst  me,  and  that  I had  a 
right  to  go  there.  Also  when  I was  at  thy  table,  it  was  said  by 
thy  minister — I doubt  not  by  thy  guiding  and  directing  Spirit — 
What  is  your  request,  and  what  is  your  petition?  Then  it  oc- 
curred again  unto  me  what  I had  done  before,  when  reading  the 
23d  and  24th  verses  of  the  sixteenth  of  John,  to  entreat  Jesus 
Christ  to  dwell  in  my  heart  by  faith,  and  never  to  leave  me,  nor 
forsake  me  ; and  there  [at  the  Lord’s  table]  I did,  thou  knowest, 
O Lord,  with  the  sincerity  of  my  soul,  accept  of  the  Lord  as  my 
covenanted  God,  and  did  most  earnestly  entreat  the  assistance 
of  thy  Holy  Spirit  and  strength  to  be  with  me  for  ever,  that  1 may 
never  go  out  of  thy  way,  but  be  helped  to  live  uprightly  and 
holily  all  the  days  of  my  appointed  time.” 

Hamilton  was  a place  endeared  to  her  by  many  sacred  as  well 
as  tender  recollections.  Not  only  was  it  her  birthplace,  the 
dwelling-place  of  her  infancy,  and  her  parental  residence  ; but 
God  there  first  visited  her  soul  in  mercy — an  event  the  most  im- 
portant in  her  history,  when  viewed  in  the  light  of  eternity.  In 
after-life  she  looked  back  to  this  period  with  feelings  of  the  deep- 
est gratitude  to  God  ; and  Hamilton  was  to  her  ever  after  a con- 
secrated spot,  “ This  was  the  place,”  says  she,  after  recording 
her  experience  of  the  goodness  of  God  to  her  on  that  sacramental 
occasion,  “ where  thou  first  lookedst  upon  me  in  mercy,  and 
saidst  unto  me  when  I was  in  my  blood.  Live,  about  sixteen  or 
seventeen  years  ago.  But,  oh !”  she  adds,  “ I have  been  often  a 
trangressor  and  revolter  since  ; but  thou  wast  faithful,  and  didst 
not  break  thy  covenant  with  me,  nor  alter  the  thing  that  had  gone 
out  of  thy  mouth,  Psalm  Ixxxix.  34,  but  rather  performedst  thy 
promise,  verses  31,  32,  ‘ That  if  I should  break  thy  statutes,  and 
keep  not  thy  covenant,  thou  wouldest  visit  my  transgressions 


466 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


with  the  rod,  and  mine  iniquity  with  stripes,  but  thy  loving-kind" 
ness  thou  wouldest  never  take  away  from  me,  nor  suffer  thy 
faithfulness  to  fail.’  Blessed  be  thy  holy  name,  thou  art  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  evermore,  on  which  I rest. 
Amen,  amen.” 

In  the  beginning  of  September,  1697,  she  and  her  husband  left 
Edinburgh  for  London.  On  sabbath,  September  5,  they  rested 
at  Alnwick,  the  seat  of  the  duke  of  Northumberland ; and,  on 
Saturday,  the  18th  of  that  month,  they  arrived  at  Kensington, 
v/here  they  remained  the  greater  part  of  a year.  During  the 
time  of  her  residence  at  Kensington,  though,  from  her  living  at 
court,  her  obstacles  to  retirement  and  meditation  were  increased, 
there  is  ample  evidence  from  her  diary  that  much  of  her  time 
was  spent  in  reading  the  Scriptures,  in  spiritual  meditation,  in 
self-examination,  and  in  prayer. 

At  the  commencement  of  a new  year  it  was  her  practice,  in  a 
particular  manner  to  review  her  past  life  ; to  take  an  account  of 
the  manner  in  which  she  had  spent  the  year  that  was  gone,  never 
to  be  recalled ; to  mark  the  rapidity  with  which  she  was  advan- 
cing in  the  journey  of  life,  and  to  embrace  God  anew,  as  her  God 
for  time  and  for  eternity.  On  the  first  day  of  the  year  1698, 
when  in  the  thirty-sixth  year  of  her  age,  she  thus  writes  : “ I 
have  this  day  renewed  again  my  covenant  with  my  God,  though 
in  great  weakness,  yet,  I hope  in  sincerity.  I have  given  up  my- 
self, soul  and  body,  to  be  at  his  disposal,  as  he  sees  meet.  O that 
he  would  be  pleased  to  give  me  new  strength  to  serve  him  in 
newness  of  life  this  new  year,  and  that  as  days  are  added  to  my 
natural  life,  so  grace  may  be  added  to  my  spiritual.  O that  with 
the  old  year,  which  will  never  return  again,  I may  have  left  off 
my  old,  sinful,  crooked,  and  worldly  ways,  and  never  return  to 
them  again.  Lord,  thou  who  searchest  the  heart,  and  triest  the 
reins,  knowest  that  this  is  more  the  desire  of  my  soul  than  all 
gold  or  silver,  or  honors  or  pleasures  upon  this  earth.  Therefore, 
O deny  me  not  the  earnest  request  of  my  soul  this  day,  and  ful- 
fil that  scripture  thou  broughtest  to  my  mind  this  morning  in 
prayer,  ‘ I will  never  leave  thee,  nor  forsake  thee,’  Heb.  xiii.  5.” 

On  the  first  day  of  a subsequent  year,  1699,  which  was  sab- 
bath, she  thus  writes  at  Huntingtower : “ This  day  I have  been 
reflecting  how  I have  spent  the  last  year,  and  alas  ! I find  great 
cause  to  mourn,  for  I have  been  very  earthly-minded  and  carnal, 
and,  with  Martha,  cumbered  about  many  things,  and  have  much 
neglected  the  one  thing  needful.  Lord,  pardon  me,  for  Jesus 
Christ’s  sake ; I desire  to  repent  and  be  humble.  O that  thou 


DUCHESS  OF  ATHOLL. 


467 


niayest  help  me  to  spend  this  year  better,  if  thou  sparest  me. 
But  I find  all  my  resolutions  ineffectual  unless  tjiou  assist  me  ; but 
if  thou  wilt  put  to  thy  helping  hand,  and  give  me  the  lively  in- 
fluences of  thy  Holy  Spirit,  duties  will  not  only  be  easy  but  pleas- 
ant to  me.  I have  been  endeavoring,  though,  alas  ! in  much 
deadness  and  weakness,  to  renew  my  covenant  with  thee  ; and 
this  day  I desire  to  confirm  all  that  I have  ever  done  before,  to 
resign  myself  and  all  that  is  mine  to  thee.  Holy  Lord,  accept 
of  me,  and  give  me  sincerity  and  truth,  and  say  thou  that  thou 
acceptest  of  me.” 

Huntingtower  (formerly  called  Ruthven  castle),  at  which  these 
reflections  were  written,  was  another  place  where  she  and  her 
husband  sometimes  resided.  This  castle,  which  is  in  the  parish 
of  Tibbermuir,  is  a very  ancient  building,  though  it  does  not  ap- 
pear ever  to  have  been  a place  of  great  strength.  It  was  for- 
merly the  seat  of  the  Gowrie  family,  and  the  place  where  James 
VI.  was  some  time  confined  by  the  earl  of  Gowrie  and  others,  in 
the  enterprise  usually  called  the  Raid  of  Ruthven  ; but  the  cas- 
tle, with  the  adjoining  barony,  became  the  property  of  the  Atholl 
family,  by  a marriage  with  the  Tullibardine  family,  who  had  re- 
ceived it  from  James  YL,  after  the  earl  of  Gowrie  had  lost  it  in 
consequence  of  his  conspiracy.  It  is  now  the  seat  of  a calico- 
printing  establishment. 

To  the  spiritual  welfare  of  her  children.  Lady  Tullibardine’s 
pious  emotions,  wishes,  and  prayers  were,  in  an  especial  manner, 
directed.  When,  in  May,  1698,  the  earl  went  to  Oxford  with 
their  eldest  son,  John,  purposing  to  leave  him  there  at  school, 
should  it  be  found  a suitable  place  for  carrying  on  his  education, 
she  records  her  earnest  desire  not  only  that  her  son  might  be  ac- 
complished in  every  kind  of  secular  learning,  but  that,  as  God 
had  distinguished  him  by  a high  birth  in  this  world,  he  would 
also  confer  upon  him  the  higher  distinction  of  being  holy  in  char- 
acter, and  a promoter  of  true  godliness.  ‘‘  I could  not  remem- 
ber,” she  adds,  “ that  I had  dedicated  him  in  the  womb  so  much 
to  God  as  I had  done  the  rest;  but  this  day  [sabbath.  May  22], 
I have  resigned  him,  and  all  the  rest  of  my  children,  wholly  to 
be  the  Lord’s.  O accept  of  the  gift,  so  far  as  they  are  mine  to 
give  ; they  are  thine  by  creation,  O let  them  be  thine  by  adop- 
tion, regeneration,  sanctification,  and  redemption.  Fulfil  to  me, 
O Lord,  the  127th  and  128th  psalms,  that  my  children  may  be  thy 
heritage,  and  the  fruit  of  my  womb  thy  reward  ; that  thus  I may 
be  blessed  out  of  Zion,  that  thus  I may  be  blessed  of  those  that 
desire  to  fear  thy  name,  and  that  I may  see  the  good  of  thy  Je- 


468 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


rusalem,  and  peace  upon  thy  Israel.  And  O forget  not  my  ab- 
sent husband,  the  father  of  these  children,  whom  I have  given  up 
unto  thee,  and  make  him  say  amen  to  the  bargain ; and  be  thou 
his  God,  and  my  God,  and  the  God  of  our  seed,  from  henceforth, 
from  this  day,  and  for  ever,  amen.  And  to  thee,  holy  Father, 
blessed  Redeemer,  and  sanctifying  Spirit,  be  the  glory  and  praise 
of  all.” 

In  June  this  year  she  returned  to  Scotland  with  the  earl,  who 
went  north  to  attend  the  Scottish  parliament  ;*  and  during  their 
stay  at  Edinburgh,  their  lodgings  were  in  the  abbey.  They  next 
went  to  Huntingtower  ; and  from  the  dates  in  her  diary,  she  ap- 
pears residing  there  from  November  1698,  to  May  1701. 

From  her  diary  we  are  at  no  loss  to  discover  her  warm  attach- 
ment to  the  presbyterian  church  of  Scotland.  But  while  espous- 
ing from  conviction  the  presbyterian  cause,  she  held  her  princi- 
ples in  a spirit  of  charity  and  forbearance.  Hers  was  not  a re- 
ligion which  would  deny  the  validity  of  a Divine  ordinance,  be- 
cause not  administered  in  the  way  she  judged  most  agreeable  to  the 
Word  of  God,  or  which  would  deny  the  Christianity  of  all  who  did 
not  belong  to  the  church  of  which  she  was  a member.  So  high 
were  the  Scottish  episcopalians  of  that  day  on  the  doctrine  of 
episcopal  succession,  as  to  deny  that  presbyterian  ministers  were 
lawful  ministers  ; maintaining  that  without  episcopal  government 
there  could  be  no  regular  ordination  of  ministers,  and  consequent- 
ly holding  that  all  the  services  of  the  presbyterian  ministers  as 
such  were  so  many  irregular  nullities.  Even  some  of  the  more 
wild  among  them  went  so  far  as  to  declare,  that  those  who  were 
not  of  the  communion  of  the  church  of  England  were  in  a state 
of  damnation,  and  left  to  the  uncovenanted  mercy  of  God.f  But 
these  opinions  the  duchess  justly  regarded  as  extreme  and  unten- 
able, and  the  remarks  she  makes  on  them,  while  indicating  her 
entire  want  of  sympathy  with  such  extravagant  sectarianism, 
and  her  regret  that  it  should  be  obtruded  on  the  church,  to  create 
division  and  offence,  are  yet  marked  by  great  mildness  of  tem- 
per. “ Dunk  eld,  April  4,  1706  : I was  this  day  reflecting  upon 
the  sad  divisions  of  this  church  ; and  now  it  is  become  a doctrine 
preached  up  by  the  episcopalians,  that  the  presbyterians  are  not 
lawful  ministers,  and  that  what  they  do  is  not  valid,  so  that  those 
they  baptize  are  not  baptized ; and  that  the  people  owe  them  no 
obedience  in  their  ministerial  authority.  I was  made  to  think  it 
was  a matter  of  great  lamentation,  and  presaged  very  sad  things 

Carstairs’s  State  Papers,  p.  381. 
t Wodrow’s  Correspondence,  vol.  i.  pp.  202,  400. 


DUCHESS  OF  ATHOLL. 


469 


to  this  nation,  and  the  more  that  it  was  so  little  laid  to  heart,  and 
that  there  is  so  great  a neglect,  to  say  no  worse,  of  the  gospel 
which  is  preached  so  powerfully  among  us.” 

The  duchess  was  seized  with  her  last  illness  at  Hamilton  pal- 
ace, whither  she  had  gone  on  a visit  to  her  mother,  about  the 
close  of  the  year  1706,  and  she  died  there  in  January,  1707,  in 
the  forty-fifth  year  of  her  age.  Her  husband,  to  his  great  grief, 
was  absent  during  the  closing  scene,  having  been  attending  the 
last  parliament  of  Scotland,  at  Edinburgh,  and  not  having  been 
apprized  of  her  dangerous  condition  in  sufficient  time  to  be  able 
to  reach  Hamilton,  to  see  her  in  life,  the  symptoms  not  having 
assumed  a decidedly  alarming  aspect  till  shortly  before  her  death. 
But  by  her  mother,  the  duchess  of  Hamilton,  and  other  sympa- 
thizing friends,  she  was  waited  upon  with  all  manner  of  affec- 
tionate tenderness  and  care.  To  the  last  she  retained  the  full 
possession  of  her  faculties,  and  as  her  life  had  been  eminently 
holy,  so  her  latter  end  was  peace.  She  had  long  been  under 
the  training  of  her  heavenly  Father,  and  now  she  maintained  a 
tranquil  resignation  to  his  sovereign  will.  Her  confidence  as  a 
guilty  sinner — for  such  she  felt  herself  to  be — in  the  great  pro- 
pitiation, and  in  God’s  everlasting  covenant,  remained  unshaken 
throughout  the  mortal  conflict,  producing  the  sure  anticipation 
of  future  blessedness,  and  enabling  her  to  triumph  over  all  the 
terrors  of  the  last  enemy. 

Not  much  more  than  two  hours  before  her  death,  the  medical 
gentleman  who  attended  her,  finding  the  vital  powers  fast  sinking, 
informed  her  friends  present  of  her  dangerous  situation.  This 
was  on  the  9th  of  January,  a little  before  ten  o’clock  at  night. 
Mr.  Findlater,  one  of  the  ministers  of  the  parish  of  Hamilton, 
being  immediately  sent  for,  to  administer  to  her  religious  comfort, 
and  to  pray  with  her,  hastened  to  the  palace  ; and,  at  the  request 
of  the  duke  of  Atholl,  he  wrote  a short  account  of  the  circum- 
stances attending  her  death.  When  he  came  into  the  room,  an 
attendant  told  her  that  Mr.  Findlater  was  present,  to  whom,  being 
in  a state  of  great  prostration,  she  answered,  “Tell  him  I can 
not  speak  ; desire  him  to  pray.”  After  prayer  he  spoke  to  her  a 
few  words  encouraging  her  against  the  terror  of  death,  from  the 
nature  of  God’s  covenant  with  her,  and  her  interest  in  it.  She 
then  regretted  her  want  of  strength  to  speak,  that  she  might  show 
what  interest  she  had  in  the  covenant,  and  what  God  had  done 
for  her  soul.  She  owned  that  she  had  frequently  renewed  her 
covenant  with  God,  and  given  her  consent  to  it,  and  that  now 
this  was  her  greatest  comfort.  Her  want  of  strength  to  declare 

40 


470 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


to  those  about  her,  so  fully  as  she  desired,  her  experience  of  the 
goodness  of  God,  and  her  calm  and  brightening  hope  of  endless 
felicity,  was  indeed  her  greatest  grief.  This  she  regretted  not 
only  to  Mr.  Findlater,  but  also  to  her  nurse  who  attended  her,  to 
whom  she  called  frequently  a little  before  her  death,  “ O pray, 
pray  that  I may  have  a little  ease,  that  I may  declare  God’s 
goodness  to  me.”  Having  withdrawn  for  a short  time  to  the 
next  room,  Mr.  Findlater  returned  to  her  chamber,  and,  thinking 
she  had  become  more  oppressed,  asked  her  how  it  was  with  her. 
She  answered,  ‘‘Very  weak — and  dying.”  But  she  knew  in 
whom  she  had  believed,  and  seemed  to  comfort  herself  with 
these  words,  which  the  minister  quoted,  and  which  she  repeated 
after  him,  “ My  flesh  and  my  heart  faileth : but  God  is  the 
strength  of  my  heart,  and  my  portion  for  ever.”  She  then  desired 
him  to  pray.  He  asked  her  what  he  should  pray  for  to  her  ; what 
was  that  one  thing  she  would  seek  from  the  Lord,  above  all  things. 
“ Pray,”  said  she,  “ but  for  as  much  strength  as  that  I may  de- 
clare the  goodness  of  God  to  me  ;”  straining  herself  apparently, 
and  speaking  with  a more  elevated  voice  than  formerly.  He 
asked  her  whether  she  desired  to  live,  or  to  die  and  be  with 
Christ,  which  was  best  of  all.  She  said,  “ That  is  best  of  all 
indeed.”  In  time  of  prayer  he  heard  her  repeat  some  words  of 
scripture  after  him ; particularly  when  mention  was  made  of  the 
covenant  being  ordered  in  all  things,  and  sure,  she  said,  “ That 
is  all  my  salvation  and  all  my  desire  ;”  which,  says  Mr.  Find- 
later, “ were  the  last  words  she  spoke  in  my  hearing.  Though 
her  body  was  greatly  pained,”  he  adds,  “ yet  her  soul  seemed 
full  of  the  joy  of  the  Lord,  which  is  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory.” 
He  again  left  her  chamber  a second  time.  During  his  absence, 
her  mother,  seeing  her  weak,  asked  her  if  she  had  anything  to 
say  to  her.  She  answered — and  the  answer  shows  how  unabated 
affection  for  dear  surviving  earthly  friends  may  mingle  with  the 
calm  resignation  that  bids  farewell  to  life,  and  with  the  joy  aris- 
ing from  the  certain  prospect  of  everlasting  blessedness — “ Dear 
mother,  be  kind  to  my  Lord,”  which  were  the  last  words  she 
spoke,  as  the  duke  feelingly  records.  When  Mr.  Findlater  came 
into  her  room  the  third  time,  she  could  speak  none,  and  in  a 
moment  or  two  after  he  had  again  prayed  with  her,  she  fell  asleep 
in  Christ,  about  a quarter  of  an  hour  after  twelve  o’clock  at  night. 

The  duke  of  Atholl  was  much  affected  by  the  death  of  his 
beloved  wife,  of  whose  great  worth  he  was  deeply  sensible,  and 
it  enhanced  his  sorrow  that  he  enjoyed  not  the  melancholy  satis- 
faction of  seeing  her  on  her  deathbed.  At  the  close  of  her  diary 


DUCHESS  OF  ATHOLL. 


471 


he  thus  records  the  mournful  dispensation  : ‘‘  It  hath  pleased  the 
great  and  only  wise  God,  who  doeth  what  he  sees  fit  in  heaven 
and  in  earth,  to  take  from  me,  to  himself,  my  dear  wife,  Catha- 
rine, duchess  of  Atholl,  and  in  her  my  chiefest  earthly  comfort. 
She  died  at  Hamilton  between  the  ninth  and  tenth  of  January, 
1707,  between  twelve  and  one  o’clock,  Friday  morning.  I was 
at  that  time  in  Edinburgh,  attending  the  last  parliament  of  Scot- 
land, and  was  not  timeously  advertised  of  her  dangerous  condi- 
tion, so  tha.t  I wanted  the  satisfaction  of  being  with  her  in  her 
last  hours,  which  was  an  extraordinary  great  addition  to  my 
irreparable  loss.  Mr.  Findlater,  minister  of  Hamilton,  was  sent 
for  but  two  hours  before  her  death,  till  which  time  the  doctor 
that  was  with  her  did  not  declare  she  was  in  any  danger.  I 
desired  Mr.  Findlater  to  put  in  writing  what  she  had  said  con- 
cerning the  state  of  her  soul ; which  shows  that  she  died  in  the 
same  holy  disposition  and  frame  in  which  she  had  lived.” 

As  the  duke  highly  esteemed  and  loved  the  duchess  while  she 
lived,  so  he  continued  to  cherish  her  memory  after  she  was  gone. 
From  several  parts  of  her  diary,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
he  was  not  neglectful  of  the  most  important  interests,  and  that 
his  religious  impressions  were  very  much  owing  to  her  prayers, 
counsel,  and  example.  He  greatly  valued  the  memorials  of  her 
Christian  experience  and  exercise  contained  in  her  diary,  which 
she  expressly  left  as  a dying  legacy  to  him,  in  the  hope  that  he 
might  profit  by  it ; and  the  solemn  and  affectionate  thought  of  her 
virtues  and  graces,  now  when  she  had  entered  eternity,  enforced 
with  new  power  the  motives  to  religion.  He  now  seemed,  as  it 
were,  to  hear  her  in  that  document,  speaking  to  him  from  the 
eternal  world,  bidding  him  make  the  salvation  of  the  soul  the 
one  thing  needful,  and  follow  in  the  path  which  had  conducted 
her  to  immortal  happiness.  Even  ten  years  subsequently  to  her 
death,  he  employe^^mself  in  transcribing  a copy  from  the  origi- 
nal, written  with  ne^own  hand,  prefixing  to  the  copy  the  follow- 
ing notice  : “ This  book,  with  some  other  papers  written  by  my 
dear  wife,  were  left  by  her  to  me  just  before  her  death.  She 
recommended  them  to  me  by  a paper  she  caused  me  to  write  at 
that  time,  calling  them  her  treasure,  which  she  desired  I might 
make  good  use  of. — Dunkeld,  March,  1717.  Atholl.” 

In  politics  the  duke  was  shifting,  but  he  continued  to  his  death 
warmly  attached  to  the  go^^ernment  and  worship  of  the  church 
of  Scotland.  “ He  was  a most  zealous  presbyterian,”  says 
Douglas,  “ and,  after  he  joined  the  cavaliers,  still  courted  and 
preserved  his  interest  with  the  presbyterian  ministers,  professing 


472 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


always  to  be  firm  to  their  kirk-government,  hearing  them  always 
in  their  church(?fe,  and  patronizing  them  much  more  than  those 
of  the  episcopal  persuasion,  which  induced  many  of  the  tories  to 
doubt  his  sincerity.”*  His  continuing  to  adhere  steadily  to  the 
presbyterian  church,  after  joining  the  cavaliers,  was  so  incon- 
sistent, that  it  could  hardly  fail  of  rendering  him  an  object  of 
distrust  to  the  party  which  he  joined.  But  the  inconsistency  is 
easily  explained,  when  we  take  into  account  that  he  was  proba- 
bly not  a stranger  to  true  religion.  Circumstances  prevailed  in 
nuking  him  desert  the  whigs,  among  whom  he  very  likely  saw 
not  a little  of  the  selfishness,  corruption,  and  want  of  principle, 
which  have  often  disgraced  politicians  of  all  classes  ; but  the 
religious  element  kept  him  close  to  the  church  of  Scotland,  to 
which  almost  all  the  piety  of  Scotland  was  at  that  time  confined.' 
In  the  former  case,  he  may  be  said  to  have  acted  according  to 
early  educational  influence  ; in  the  latter,  according  to  the  happier 
influence  which  his  duchess  had  exerted  upon  him  while  she 
lived,  and  which  her  memory  continued  to  exercise  upon  him 
after  her  death. 


Douglas’s  Peerage,  vol.  i.,  p.  150. 


APPENDIX. 


No.  I. — (p.  49.) 

Letter  of  Mr,  Robert  Ward  to  Lady  Ardross, 

[This  letter,  which  is  in  vol.  lx.,  folio.  No.  31,  of  the  Wodrow  MSS., 
is  in  M‘Ward’s  handwriting,  and  he  describes  it  “A  double  of  a line 
to  the  Lady  Ardross  when  I was  in  prison,  and  she  was  to  leave  the 
town.”] 

“ Worthy  Madam  : All  that  I can  do  (neither  can  I do  that  to  pur- 
pose), is  only  to  acknowledge  a debt  to  your  ladyship,  which  I am  not 
able  to  pay;  but  I know  you  were  pleased  upon  such  an  account  to 
concern  and  interest  yourself  in  that  business,  as,  when  I can  not  re- 
quite it,  He  who  takes  notice  of  less,  and  will  not  suffer  a cup  of  cold 
water  to  want  its  reward,  will  remember  this  your  labor  of  love,  and 
make  it  a fruit  which  shall  abound  to  your  account.  I hope,  madam, 
however  your  affairs  have,  by  calling  you  hence,  deprived  your  lady- 
ship of  the  occasion  and  me  of  the  advantage  of  your  interceding  with 
men  in  my  behalf,  yet  ye  will  not  forget  to  deal  with  God  in  my  be- 
half, that  now,  when  it  comes  to  the  swellings  of  Jordan,  I may  not 
sink  nor  succumb,  and  desert  a cause  upon  which  [I]  am  obliged  not 
only  to  venture  my  life,  but  some  way  soul  also,  which  is  by  sealing 
that  poor  testimony  with  my  blood,  if  he  call  me  to  it,  though  he  should 
suffer  me  to  die  in  the  dark,  and  never  say  to  my  soul  he  could  save 
me.” 


No.  II. — (p.  96.) 

The  Marchioness  of  Argyll's  Interview  with  Middleton,  after  the  Condemn 
nation  of  her  Husband, 

In  another  part  of  his  Analecta  (vol.  i.,  p.  73),  Wodrow  records  a 
few  additional  facts  in  reference  to  this  interview.  “ December  6,  1705. 
As  to  what  goes  before  November  11,  Mr.  Robert  Muir  gives  the  very 
same  account  that  he  had  from  Mr.  James  Drummond,  the  Lady  Ar- 
gyll’s chaplain,  with  this  variation,  that  the  king  told  Middleton  while 
yet  a gentleman  at  Breda,  that  he  behooved,  when  he  went  over  to 
England  (it  was  a very  little  before  his  restoration),  he  behooved  to  be 
his  commissioner  in  Scotland,  [to]  get  these  three  things  done.  And 
he  told  him  this  would  anger  the  nobility,  and  refused,  till  for  three 
days  the  king  looked  down  on  him  ; and  when  he  asked  him  the  reason, 

AO* 


474 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


he  said  he  would  still  do  so  till  he  went  in  with  his  former  proposal, 
which  he  did.  And,  therefore,  says  he,  to  the  Lady  Argyll,  ‘ I can  do 
you  no  service.’  And  he  told  her  that  purposely  he  had  shifted  speak- 
ing to  her  ; and  that  he  kept  spies  on  her  servants  when  they  came  to 
the  abbey,  so  that,  when  they  called  for  him,  he  was  still  not  to  be 
found  ; and  at  this  time  she  had  surprised  him.  This,  Mrv  Drummond 
heard  her  tell  frequently.” 


No.  III.— (p.  100.) 

Marchioness  of  Argyll,  and  her  Son  the  Earl  of  Argyll. 

Her  son,  the  earl  of  Argyll,  afterward  became  a great  courtier,  took 
the  declaration  abjuring  the  covenants,  and  in  other  respects  complied 
with  the  evil  courses  of  the  time.  This  Avas  deeply  regretted  by  his 
mother,  and  the  best  friends  of  the  Argyll  family,  who  were  ready  to 
exclaim,  O tempora  ! O mores  P'  But  she  never  lost  hopes  of  his 
returning  to  his  father’s  principles,  as  appears  from  a letter  of  Mr. 
James  Stirling,  minister  of  Barony,  Glasgow,  to  a brother  minister 
whose  name  is  unknown,  dated  Glasgow,  May  5,  1722,  in  which  he 
says : “I  was  yesterday  visiting  Mr.  John  Stewart’s  eldest  son,  who  I 
truly  fear  may  be  dying.  His  mother,  Mrs.  Stewart,  told  me  a pas- 
sage Avhich  she  had  from  her  honest  father,  John  Ritchie,  which  I sup- 
pose ye  may  have  known,  and  she  said  he  told  it  to  her  several  times, 
that  he  was  very  intimate  with  that  choice  elect  lady,  my  lady  mar- 
chioness of  Argyll.  He  was  one  day  with  her  in  her  chamber,  and  he 
said  very  freely  to  her,  ‘Madam,  I apprehend  that  your  son  the  earl 
of  Argyll’s  going  on  in  such  a way,  with  the  court  of  this  time,  will  be 
grieving  to  your  ladyship.’  The  sun  was  shining  then  very  brightly  in 
that  chamber  where  he  and  my  lady  was,  and  she  answered  John 
Ritchie  thus:  ‘John,  I am  as  clear[ly]  and  fully  persuaded  as  ye  now 
clearly  see  the  sun  shining  in  this  chamber,  that  my  son  will  have  a 
saving  change  wrought  upon  him  before  he  die,  and  that  he  will  return 
to  his  father’s  way,  and  that  he  will  be  brought  to  suffer  for  it.’  Mrs. 
SteAvart  said  to  me  that  her  father  told  her  this,  that  I now  write  to 
you,  many  times — as*  good  as  twenty  times — and  that  her  father  Avas 
very  great  Avith  ‘ that  noble  prince’  (as  worthy  Mr.  John  Carstairs  used 
to  call  him),  the  marquis  of  Argyll.  I heard  once  something  like  this, 
but  never  got  such  a document  for  it  as  I got  yesterday.”^ 


No.  IV.— (p.  128.) 

Letter  of  Mrs.  John  Carstairs  to  her  Husband. 

The  letter  AV’hich  it  Avas  intended  to  insert  here  having  appeared  in 
the  “ Christian  Instructor”  for  1840  (p.  55),  is  omitted  to  make  room 
for  some  original  papers. 

* Letters  to  Wodrov/,  vol.  x , 4to,  No.  170,  MSS.  in  Advocates’  Library. 


APPENDIX. 


475 


No.  V.— (p.  147.) 

Suspected  Corruption  of  Clarendon^ s History. 

WoDROW,  writing  in  1731,  says : “ Mr.  J.  Hamilton  tells  me  that 
he  had  what  follows  from  the  duchess  of  Hamilton’s  own  mouth  ; the 
old  duchess  I mean,  the  heir  to  the  family ; and  so,  I think,  it  may  be 
depended  on.  He  says  Bishop  Guthrie’s  Memoirs  were  published  a 
little  before  Clarendon’s  History,  first  printed  1710,  at  Oxford  ; that  it 
was  then  generally  believed  that  the  edition  of  Bishop  Guthrie  was 
much  altered  from  the  bishop’s  papers,  by  the  influence  of  the  gentle- 
men of  Oxford,  who  had  the  publishing  of  Clarendon  in  their  hands; 
that  when  he  was  talking  of  this  with  the  duchess,  and  the  approach- 
ing edition  of  Clarendon,  her  grace  told  him  that  when  she  was  at  court, 
after  the  restoration,  when  the  earl  of  Clarendon  was  writing  his  His- 
tory, he  came  and  visited  her,  and  told  her  that  he  knew  her  father 
very  well,  and  took  him  to  be  one  of  the  honestest  men  of  his  acquaint- 
ance. He  added,  her  father  had  been  abused  and  very  ill  used  by  the 
party  writers,  before  and  since  his  death  ; and  that  now  he  was  writing 
a history  of  those  times,  he  was  willing  to  do  the  duke  all  the  justice 
in  his  power,  and  desired  her  to  furnish  him  with  any  papers  which 
might  give  light  to  his  actings.  Accordingly,  when  she  came  down 
to  Scotland,  her  grace  called  for  Dr.  Burnet,  and  implored  him  to. 
rummage  all  the  papers  in  Hamilton  that  related  to  her  father,  and 
to  lay  out  what  he  reckoned  might  be  of  use  to  the  earl ; and  she 
sent  up  by  an  express  a large  bundle  of  papers,  relative  to  her  father, 
to  England.  That,  next  lime  she  went  to  court,  a ^^ear  or  two 
after,  the  earl  of  Clarendon  came  and  waited  upon  her  at  London, 
thanked  her  for  the  papers  she  had  communicat  to  him,  and  returned 
them  all  safe.  He  told  her  he  was  now  perfectly  satisfied  as  to  her 
father’s  character,  and  that  he  was  as  honest  a man  as  breathed,  and 
would  give  it  fully  and  fairly  to  the  world  ; only,  there  remained  one 
particular  about  Vvdiich  he  was  not  yet  so  clear  as  he  could  wish.  The 
duke’s  enemies  alleged  that  he  brought  over  ten  thousand  stand  of 
arms  from  Holland,  and  seemed  to  vouch  it;  they  pretended  further, 
that  he  himself  had  a design  on  the  crown,  to  accomplish  which  he  got 
these  arms.  This,  the  duchess  said,  touched  her  very  nearly,  and  she 
immediately  resolved  to  send  a servant  express  to  Hamilton,  and  or- 
dered a ne%^  search  to  be  made  at  Hamilton,  particularly  for  anything 
that  related  to  ten  thousand  stand  of  arms  ; and,  very  happily,  the  ser- 
vant brought  her  the  original  commission,  under  the  king’s  own  hand, 
to  bring  so  many  stand  of  arms  for  his  service  ! This  the  duchess  im- 
mediately sent  to  the  earl.  When  he  saw  and  read  it,  he  came  back 
with  it  to  her  grace,  and  said  : ‘Now,  madam,  I am  satisfied  in  every 
point;  and  I believe  and  am  assured  your  father  was  one  of  the  best, 
sincerest,  and  honestest  persons,  of  that  time ; and  I will  give  him,  as 
is  my  duty,  a just  and  fair  character  to  the  world.’  This  passed  before 
Clarendon  was  published.  Expectations  were  great  enough  when  the 


476 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


earl’s  History  was  a-printing.  As  soon  as  it  came  down,  the  duchess 
got  it  and  read  it.  When  Mr.  Hamilton  saw  her  after  she  had  got  the 
printed  Clarendon,  he  asked  her  how  she  liked  it.  She  answered,  with 
some  concern  : ‘ I have  read  it,  and  I and  my  family  are  greatly  abused 
in  it ; and,  I apprehend,  this  is  the  fruit  of  the  earl’s  MS.  its  lying 
twenty  years  in  the  hands  of  the  gentlemen  at  Oxford’ — and  she  verily 
believed  that  the  earl’s  original  History  was  grossly  vitiated.”^ 


No.  VL— (p.  282.) 

Indictment  of  Isabel  Alison  and  Marion  Harvey, 

The  justiciary  court  having  met  at  Edinburgh,  on  the  17th  of  Janu- 
ary, 1681,  the  judges  on  the  bench  being  Lords  Richard  Maitland  of 
Duddop,  justice-clerk,  James  Foulis  of  Colintoun,  Robert  Nairn  of 
Strathurd,  David  Balfour  of  Forret,  David  Falconer  of  Newtoun,  and 
Roger  Hog  of  Harcars ; the  two  martyrs  were  brought  to  the  bar,  and 
their  indictment  was  read,  an  extract  of  which,  from  the  records  of  the 
justiciary  court,  we  here  subjoin  : — 

^'‘Iniran, 

“Isabel  Alison,  ) . 

“Marion  Harvey,  5 

Indicted  and  accused.  That  where  notwithstanding  by  the  common 
law,  the  law  of  nations,  laws  and  acts  of  parliament  of  this  kingdom 
and  constant  practice  thereof,  the  rising,  joining,  and  assembling  together 
in  arms  of  any  number  of  his  majesty’s  subjects,  the  entering  into  leagues 
or  bonds  with  foreigners,  or  among  themselves,  without  and  contrary  to 
his  majesty’s  command,  warrant,  and  authority,  and  the  abetting,  as- 
sisting, receipting,  intercommuning,  and  keeping  correspondence  with 
such  rebels,  supplying  or  furnishing  them  with  meat,  drink,  &c.,  are 
most  detestable,  horrid,  heinous,  and  abominable  crimes  of  rebellion, 
treason,  and  lese-majesty,  and  are  punishable  with  forfaulture  of  life, 
lands,  heritages,  and  escheat  of  their  moveables  ; and  by  the  129th  act, 
8th  parliament.  King  James  VI.,  the  royal  power  and  authority  in  the 
person  of  the  king’s  majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors,  over  all  estates 
spiritual  and  temporal,  within  this  realm,  is  ratified,  approven,  and 
perpetually  confirmed,  and  it  is  thereby  statute  and  ordained  that  his 
highness,  his  heirs  and  successors,  by  themselves  and  their  c?)uncil  are, 
and  in  time  to  come  shall  be,  judges  competent  to  all  persons  his  high- 
ness’s subjects,  of  whatever  estate,  degree,  function,  or  condition  they 
be,  of  spiritual  or  temporal,  in  all  matters  wherein  they,  or  any  of  them 
shall  be  apprehended,  summoned,  or  charged  to  answer  to  such  things 
as  shall  be  speired  at  them  by  our  sovereign  lord,  or  his  council,  and 
that  none  of  them  that  shall  happen  to  be  apprehended,  called,  or 
summoned  to  the  effect  aforesaid,  presume  or  take  upon  hand  to  decline 
the  judgment  of  his  highness,  his  heirs,  and  successors,  or  their  council, 

* Wodrow’s  Analecta,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  299-39i. 


APPENDIX. 


477 


under  the  pain  of  treason.  And  by  the  10th  act,  10th  parliament,  King 
James  VI.,  it  is  statute  and  ordained,  that  all  his  highness’s  subjects 
content  themselves  in  quietness  and  dutiful  obedience  to  his  highness 
and  his  authority,  and  that  none  of  them  presume  nor  take  upon  hand 
publicly  to  disclaim,  or  privately  to  speak  or  write  any  purpose  of  re- 
proach or  slander  to  his  majesty’s  person,  estate,  or  government,  or  to 
deprave  his  laws  and  acts  of  parliament,  or  misconstrue  his  proceed- 
ings, whereby  any  misliking  may  be  moved  betwixt  his  highness,  or 
his  nobility,  and  loving  subjects  in  time  coming,  under  the  pain  of  death, 
to  be  execut  upon  them  with  all  rigor,  as  seditious  and  wicked  instru- 
ments, enemies  to  his  highness  and  the  common  weal  of  this  realm. 
And  by  the  12th  act  of  the  same  parliament  of  King  James  VI.,  it  is 
statute  and  ordained  that  in  time  coming  no  league  nor  bonds  be  made 
among  his  majesty’s  subjects  of  any  degree  upon  whatsomever  color 
[or]  pretence,  without  his  highness’s  and  his  successor’s  privity,  and 
consent  had  and  obtained  thereto,  under  the  pain  to  be  holden  and  ex- 
ecut as  movers  of  sedition.  And  by  the  2d  act,  2d  session  of  his 
majesty’s  first  parliament,  it  is  statute  and  ordained,  that  if  any  person 
or  persons  shall  hereafter  plot,  contrive,  or  intend  death  or  destruction 
to  the  king’s  majesty,  or  any  bodily  harm  tending  to  death  or  destruc- 
tion, or  to  deprive,  depose,  or  suspend  him  from  the  style,  honor,  and 
kingly  name  of  the  imperial  crown  of  this  kingdom,  or  any  others  his 
majesty’s  dominions,  or  to  suspend  him  from  the  exercise  of  his  royal 
government ; and  shall,  by  writing,  printing,  or  other  malicious  and. 
advised  speaking,  express  and  declare  such  their  treasonable  intentions, 
after  such  persons  being,  upon  sufficient  probation,  legally  convict 
thereof,  shall  be  deemed  declared  and  adjudged  traitors,  and  shall  suffer 
forfaulture  of  life,  lands,  and  goods,  as  in  the  cases  of  high  treason : 
NEVERTHELESS,  it  is  of  Verity  that  ye,  the  said  Isabel  Alison  and  Ma- 
rion Harvey,  have  presumed  to  commit  and  are  guilty  of  the  said 
crimes,  in  so  far  as  ye  have  oft  and  diverse  times  receipt,  maintained, 
supplied,  intercommuned,  and  kept  correspondence  with  Mr.  Donald 
Cargill,  Mr.  Thomas  Douglas,  Mr.  John  Welsh,  the  deceased  Mr. 
Richard  Cameron,  the  bloody  and  sacrilegious  murderers  of  the  late 
archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  and  sundry  other  notorious  traitors;  have 
heard  the  said  ministers  preach  up  treason  and  rebellion,  and  they  and 
their  associates  having  formed  and  devised  a treasonable  paper,  called 
the  Fanatics’  New  Covenant,  whereby  they  covenant  and  bind  them- 
selves to  overthrow  his  majesty’s  power  and  authority,  most  treasona- 
bly asserting  that  the  hands  of  our  king  and  most  part  of  the  rulers 
have  been  against  the  throne  of  the  Lord,  the  purity  and  power  of  re- 
ligion and  godliness,  and  have  degenerat  into  tyranny,  have  mani- 
festly rejected  God,  his  service  and  reformation  as  a slavery,  have  gov- 
erned contrary  to  all  laws.  Divine  and  human,  exercised  tyranny  and 
arbitrary  government,  oppressed  men  in  their  consciences  and  civil 
rights,  used  free  subjects  (Christians  and  reasonable  men)  with  less  dis- 
cretion than  their  beasts ; most  horridly  and  treasonably  declaring  the 
king’s  government  to  be  but  a lustful  rage,  exercised  with  as  little  right, 


478 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


reason,  and  with  more  cruelty  than  in  beasts,  and  the  king  himself,  and  the 
governors  under  him,  to  be  public  grassators  and  public  judgments,  which 
all  men  ought  as  earnestly  to  labor  to  be  free  of  as  of  sword,  famine,  or 
pestilence  raging  among  them  ; declaring  themselves  obliged  to  execute 
God’s  judgment  upon  them,  and  that  to  uphold  them  is  to  uphold  Satan’s 
kingdom  and  to  bear  down  Christ’s ; most  solemnly,  avow'edly,  and 
treasonably  (therefore)  rejecting  the  king’s  most  sacred  majesty,  their 
gracious  sovereign,  a native  prince,  and  those  associat  with  him  from 
being  their  rulers,  declaring  them  henceforth  to  be  no  lawful  rulers, 
and  that  they  neither  owe  nor  should  yield  any  willing  obedience  to 
them ; and  also  declaring  themselves  as  much  bound  in  allegiance  to  devils 
as  to  them,  they  being  (as  they  most  treasonably  say)  the  devil’s  vicege- 
rents and  not  God’s  ; and  likewise  the  said  monstrous  traitors  having  pub- 
lished an  execrable  declaration  at  the  market  cross  of  Sanquhar,  upon 
the  22d  of  June  last,  whereby  they  most  treasonably  disown  their  sov- 
ereign and  native  prince,  whom  they  call  Charles  Stewart,  who  hath 
been  tyrannizing  on  the  throne  of  Scotland,  and  government  thereof 
forfaulted  (as  they  treasonably  pretend)  several  years  since  by  this 
perjury  and  breach  of  covenant  with  God  and  his  church,  and  other 
reasons  therein  mentioned ; most  treasonably,  therefore,  denouncing 
and  declaring  war  against  their  sacred  sovereign  (whom  they  call  a 
tyrant  and  usurper)  and  all  the  men  of  his  practices,  as  enemies  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  his  house  and  covenants,  and  against  such  as  have 
strengthened  him,  sided  with  him,  or  any  ways  acknowledged  him  in 
his  usurpation  and  tyranny,  civil  and  ecclesiastic ; as  also  the  said 
traitorous  rebels  having  entered  into  and  subscribed  a treasonable  bond 
of  combination  against  their  sacred  sovereign,  wherein  they  openly  and 
avowedly  disown  him  as  a perfidious  covenant-breaker,  usurper  of  the 
royal  prerogatives  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  encroacher  upon  the  liberties 
of  the  church,  a stated  opponent  to  Jesus  Christ  himself  (the  Mediator), 
and  to  the  free  government  of  his  house,  as  the  said  covenant  declara- 
tion, and  bond  of  combination,  containing  therein  sundry  other  treason- 
able articles  and  clauses,  in  themselves  at  length  purport ; the  which 
horrid  and  treasonable  papers,  abominable  and  unchristian  expressions, 
principles  and  opinions  above-mentioned  therein  contained,  ye,  the  said 
Isabel  Alison  and  Marion  Harvey,  have  judicially,  in  presence  of  the 
lords  justice-clerk,  and  commissioners  of  justiciary,  owned  and  adhered 
to,  the  same  being  read  to  you,  because  (as  ye  say)  ye  see  nothing  in 
them  against  the  Scriptures,  and  have  most  treasonably  declined  the 
king’s  majesty’s  authority,  and  the  authority  of  the  lords  justiciary, 
because  (as  ye  most  falsely  and  treasonably  say)  they  carry  the  sword 
against  the  Lord.  And  ye,  the  said  Marion  Harvey,  have  most  trea- 
sonably approven  of  the  execrable  excommunication  used  by  Mr. 

Donald  Cargill  against  his  sacred  sovereign  at  Torwood,  upon  the 

day  of  [Sept.]  last,  and  likewise  owned  and  approved  of  the  killing  of 
the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  as  lawful,  declaring  that  he  was  as 
miserable  a wretch  as  ever  betrayed  the  kirk  of  Scotland  ; of  the  which 
treasonable  crimes  above  mentioned,  ye,  and  ilk  ane  of  you,  are  actors. 


APPENDIX. 


479 


art  and  part,  which  being  found  by  an  assize,  ye  ought  to  be  punished 
with  forfaulture  of  life,  land,  and  goods,  to  the  terrors  of  others  to  com- 
mit the  like  hereafter.” 


No.  VIL— (P.  302.) 

Apprehension  of  Hume  of  Graden,  and  the  Scujffle  in  which  Thomas  Ker, 
of  Heyhope,  was  hilled* 

This  scene  is  particularly  described  (but  who  the  writer  was  we  are 
unable  to  determine)  in  a paper  among  the  Wodrow  MSS.,  entitled, 
“ A true  account  of  the  cruel  murder  of  Thomas  Ker,  brother  to  the 
laird  of  Cherry  trees,  according  to  the  relation  of  some  who  were  pres- 
ent, which  I find  among  my  father’s  papers,  as  follows : I come 
now  to  the  tragical  passage  of  our  dear  friend’s  murder,  Thomas  Ker, 
Cherrytrees’  brother.  Graden  Hume,  being  with  my  Lord  Hume,  at 
dinner,  was  speaking  somewhat  freely  to  him,  and  after  dinner,  my 
lord  takes  him  aside,  and  tells  him  he  might  take  him  if  he  would,  and 
that  the  king  had  sent  an  express  to  Colonel  Struthers  to  apprehend  all 
vagrant  Scots  that  were  in  Northumberland.  Whereupon  Graden, 
without  taking  leave,  came  straight  to  Crookum,  where  were  Thomas 
Ker,  young  Bukum,  Henry  Hall,  Alexander  Hume,  and  Hector  Aird 
(who  were  then  sheltering,  the  persecution  being  now  so  hot  in  their 
bounds),  and  presseth  them  to  go  from  that  place,  and  not  to  stay  all 
night;  which  they  did,  though  late.  But  Graden,  being  wearied,  lies 
down  in  their  bed,  and  at  midnight  the  party  comes  and  apprehends 
Graden,  and  carries  him  first  to  my  Lord  Hume,  and  from  thence  to 
Hume  castle.  Our  friends,  hearing  of  it,  send  to  advertise  some  more 
friends  for  his  rescue ; and  they  go  to  Crookum,  where  the  tryst  was 
set  to  wait  the  party’s  coming  that  way.  However,  there  came  none 
but  whom  I have  named,  and  after  they  had  stayed  a little  at  the 
place,  they  are  advertised  that  the  party  was  gone  another  way,  which 
put  them  to  consult  what  to  do  next.  In  the  meantime  comes  there 
one  telling  them  Struthers  is  at  hand  with  his  party.  They,  not  judg- 
ing it  could  be  so,  thinking  he  had  been  gone  with  Graden,  Ker  comes 
to  the  door,  and  while  he  is  walking  there,  smoking  his  pipe,  he  dis- 
covers the  party,  and  immediately  calls  his  friends  to  draw  their  horses, 
and  draws  his  own  first,  resolving  not  to  be  taken,  but  thought  to  have 
taken  a by-way,  thinking  Struthers  would  have  passed  them.  How- 
ever, when  Ker  mounts,  one  Squire  Martins,  Sir  John  Martins,  the 
mayor  of  Newcastle’s  son,  Struthers’  nephew,  would  by  all  means 
challenge  our  friend,  contrary  [to]  the  rest,  their  inclination,  and  com- 
ing up  to  Ker,  asked  who  he  was.  He  answered,  he  was  a gentleman. 
He  says,  ‘ Be  taken,  dog.’  Ker  says,  ‘ Where  is  your  order  V Upon 
which  he  drew  his  pistol,  and  shot  Ker  in  the  belly.  Immediately  Ker 
fired,  and  shot  him  dead  through  the  head ; and  after,  Ker,  finding 
himself  deadly  wounded,  ran  upon  the  party,  and  fired  his  other  pistol, 
and  then  drew  his  sword,  and  fought  while  he  was  able  to  sit  on  horse- 
back, and  then  dropped  down,  yet  wrestled  on  his  knees,  and  prayed, 


480 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


while  the  rest  were  fighting,  till  his  breath  was  gone.  , -Our  friends 
fought  while  they  were  able.  Alexander  Hume  is  run  through  the 
body ; Henry  Hall  is  shot  through  the  arm  : all  sorely  wounded,  but 
hopes  of  their  recovery.  The  English,  some  mortally  wounded,  and 
two  killed,  with  two  of  their  best  horses,  valued  at  100  pieces.  Our 
friends,  being  disabled,  retired,  and  the  enemy  durst  not  pursue  them., 
Struthers  comes  to  Ker  while  his  breath  was  hardly  out,  and  he  and*^ 
all  of  them  run  their  swords  in  him,  and  takes  by  the  heels  and  trails 
him  through  the  puddle,  and  then  flings  him  on  a dunghill.  They 
would  not  let  bury  his  corpse,  till  a party  of  friends  went  in  and 
brought  it  away.  This  is  the  truest  account  of  it  I can  learn.”* 


No.  VIIL~(P.  314.) 

The  Fiery  Cross]  carried  through  the  Shire  of  Moray ^ in  1679. 

That  the  design  in  carrying  the  fiery  cross  through  the  shire  at  this 
time  was  to  prevent  the  heritors  and  militia  from  going  out  to  assist  the 
king’s  host,  was  an  allegation  which,  after  the  closest  investigation, 
remained  unproved.  To  protect  the  country  from  the  M‘Donalds 
seems  to  have  been  the  sole  object  of  those  with  whom  its  mission 
originated  on  that  occasion,  though  they  may  have  been  misinformed 
as  to  the  hostile  intention  of  the  M‘Donalds.  But  of  this  the  reader 
may  judge  for  himself,  from  the  evidence  collected  on  this  subject  by 
the  commissioners  of  the  privy  council  at  Elgin,  some  years  after,  and 
which  is  as  follows : — 

“ February  3,  1685. 

“In  presence  of  the  earls  of  Errol  and  Kintore,  and  Sir  George  Monro. 

“ Alexander  Brodie,  of  Lethin,  being  solemnly  sworn,  upon  his 
great  oath,  depones  he  received  a letter  from  his  daughter,  the  Lady 
Grant,  about  the  time  of  the  going  out  of  the  king’s  host,  informing  him 
of  the  M ‘Donalds  coming  down  upon  the  country,  and  that  the  laird  of 

^ Wodrow  MSS.,  vol.  xxxii.,  folio,  No.  175. 

t The  use  of  the  fiery  cross  by  the  highland  chieftains,  for  summoning  their  clans 
to  a place  of  rendezvous  upon  any  sudden  or  important  emergency  was  common  in 
the  olden  time.  It  was  also  called  Crean  Tarigh,  or  the  Cross  of  Shame,  because 
disobedience  to  what  the  symbol  implied,  inferred  infamy.  One  of  the  ends  of  the 
horizontal  piece  was  either  burnt  or  burning,  and  a piece  of  linen  or  white  cloth 
stained  with  blood,  was  suspended  from  the  other  end ; and  then  the  signal  was  de- 
livered from  hand  to  hand,  till  it  had  passed  through  the  whole  territories  of  the 
clan,  which  it  did  with  incredible  celerity.  “At  the  sight  of  the  fiery  cross,  every 
man  from  sixteen  years  old  to  sixty,  capable  of  bearing  arms,  was  obliged  instantly 
to  repair  in  his  best  accoutrements  to  the  place  of  rendezvous.  He  who  failed  to 
appear,  suffered  the  extremities  of  fire  and  sword,  which  were  emblematically  de- 
nounced to  the  disobedient,  by  the  bloody  and  burned  marks  upon  this  warlike  sig- 
nal.”— Sir  Walter  Scott.  On  June  9,  l(i85,  by  order  of  the  privy  council,  this  sig- 
nal was  sent  through  the  west  of  Fife  and  Kinross  as  nearer  to  Stirling,  that  all 
betwixt  sixty  and  sixteen  might  rise  and  oppose  Argyll  and  his  forces. — Fountain- 
hall’s  Decisions,  vol.  i.,  p.  364.  This  is,  perhaps,  the  last  instance  in  which  the  fiery 
cross  was  sent  round  by  the  command  of  the  government.  It  often  made  its  circuit, 
by  the  direction  of  the  highland  chieftains,  during  the  rebellions  of  1715  and  1745. — 
Brown’s  History  of  the  Highlands,  vol.  i.,  p.  129. 


APPENDIX. 


481 


Grant  was  gone  through  the  country  among  his  friends  to  advise  what 
to  do  ; and  depones  that  being  called  to  a burial  at  Auldearn,  he  showed 
the  letter  to  the  gentlemen  present,  and  thereafter,  at  a meeting  of  the 
gentry  of  the  shires  of  Moray  and  Nairn,  it  was  resolved  to  send  Cap- 
tain Stewart  express  to  the  earl  of  Moray,  to  advise  what  to  do ; and 
;this  is  the  truth,  as  he  shall  answer  to  God  ; depones  the  earl  of  Moray 
sent  an  answer,  and  the  militia  was  ordered  to  come  out  with  all  dili- 
gence. “ Alexander  Brodie. 

“ Alexander  Tulloch,  of  Tannahies,  being  solemnly  sworn,  .... 
depones,  at  the  time  the  heritors  were  called  out  to  the  king’s  host,  the 
time  of  Both  well  bridge,  there  came  a fiery  cross  through  the  country 
from  the  west,  wdiich  surprised  the  people,  and  put  them  in  a fright, 
as  if  Mr.  M ‘Donald  were  coming  to  invade  the  country,  which  was 
altogether  false,  and  supposed  by  the  loyal  party  to  be  done  of  purpose 
by  the  disaffected,  to  impede  the  heritors  from  going  to  the  king’s  host. 

“ Alexander  Tulloch. 

“ John  Gumming  of  Logie,  being  solemnly  sworn,  depones,  when 
he  was  busy  convening  the  militia,  and  furnishing  them  with  ammuni- 
tion, there  came  an  alarm  of  a fiery  cross  through  Moray,  as  if  it  were 
to  be  invaded  by  the  M‘ Donald’s,  which,  he  apprehends,  was  to  inter- 
rupt the  king’s  service,  and  hinder  the  militia  and  heritors  to  go  out  to 
the  king’s  host,  there  being  no  such  thing  as  M ‘Don aids  invading  the 
country  : Depones  it  was  reported  to  have  come  from  the  highlands 
and  from  Strathspey.  “ John  Gumming. 

“ George  Kay,  procurator-fiscal  of  Moray,  being  sworn,  upon  oath, 
depones  he  saw  the  fiery  cross,  that  came  through  Moray,  the  time  of 
the  going  out  of  the  king’s  host,  as  the  same  came  to  Elgin : Depones 
it  was  a fiery  stick,  kindled  at  both  ends,  and  set  upon  a pole,  and  car- 
ried in  a man’s  hand,  and  so  affrighted  the  country,  and  the  town  of 
Elgin,  that  they  kept  a guard  of  thirty  men  nightly  : Depones  the 
name  of  the  person  who  carried  the  fiery  cross  from  this,  is  [John] 
Proctor,  as  he  remembers,  but  knows  not  who  brought  [it]  ; Depones 
the  bearer  of  the  cross  alarmed  the  country  with  the  invasion  of  the 
M ‘Donalds,  but  never  anything  followed  thereupon,  nor  did  the  M‘Don- 
alds  come  down  : Depones  the  cross  came  from  Strathspey  or  the  braes 
of  Moray,  from  the  west,  as  they  were  informed  ; and  this  is  the  truth, 
as  he  shall  answer  to  God.  “ George  Kay. 

“ Sir  Alex.  Innes  of  Garlestoun,  depones  he  heard  of  a fiery  cross 
that  came  through  Moray  the  time  they  were  going  to  the  king’s  host, 
and  that  Robert  Innes,  por.  [portioner]  of  Urquhart,  took  it  out  of  the 
man’s  hand  that  brought  it  there,  and  waved  it  before  the  minister,  fore 
[before]  the  time  of  sermon:  Depones  he  heard  it  came  from  Gald- 
er,  or  Lethin,  or  Old  Brodie,  and  he  heard  the  other  night,  that  Lethin 
took  out  a paper  at  that  time,  which  he  said  was  a letter  from  Sraths- 
pey,  which  informed  him  that  the  M ‘Donalds  were  coming  down  upon 
the  country  : Depones  the  M ‘Donalds  were  not  near  the  country,  nor 

41 


482 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT, 


near  those  places  from  which  the  alarm  came,  but  all  was  designed  of 
])urpose  to  fright  the  country,  and  hinder  them  to  go  out  to  the  king’s 
iiost,  as  he  heard.  “ Alexander  Innes. 

“Elgin,  February  4,  1685. 

“In  presence  of  the  earls  of  Errol  and  Kintore,  and  Sir  George 
Monro. 

“ John  Proctor,  tailor  in  Elgin,  depones  he  was  the  man  that  car- 
ried the  fiery  cross  from  this  town  to  Urquhart,  and  that  he  got  it  from 
the  magistrates,  and  that  the  man  that  brought  it  did  alarm  the  country, 
as  if  the  McDonalds  were  presently  coming  down  to  slay  them  ; all 
which  so  affrighted  the  town  that  they  kept  strong  guards  : Depones  he 
heard  it  came  from  the  highlands  and  Strathspey,  and  that  it  was  de- 
signed, as  has  been  since  believed,  to  hinder  the  people  to  go  out  to  the 
king’s  host ; Depones  it  came  from  the  kirk  of  Birney  ; and  this  is  the 
truth,  as  he  shall  answer  to  God  : Depones  he  can  not  write. 

“ Eriiol. 

“ Kintore. 

“ G.  Monro. 

“ Alexander.  Kinnaird  of  Culbin,  depones  . . . that  about  the  time 
they  w'ere  going  out  to  the  king’s  host,  there  was  a report  and  alarm 
raised,  as  if  the  M‘Donalds  were  coming  down  to  invade  the  country; 
whereupon  there  was  a meeting  of  the  gentry  convened  at  Auldearn, 
among  whom  his  father  was  one,  and  that  there  Lethin  took  out  a let- 
ter which,  he  said,  came  from  Strathspey,  which  informed  him  that 
the  M‘Donalds  were  coming  down  ; whereupon  the  gentlemen  took 
care  for  their  security,  and  his  father  closed  up  his  papers  in  a stone 
wall : Depones  about  that  time  there  came  a fiery  cross  through  the 
country,  which  gave  them  the  same  alarm,  and  that  there  was  no  such 
thing  as  the  McDonalds  coming  down,  but  all  was  done  on  design  to 
keep  the  people  from  going  out  to  the  king’s  host. 

“ Alexander  Kinnaird. 

“ Thomas  Kinnaird,  elder,  of  Culbin,  being  solemnly  sworn,  de- 
pones that  there  was  a meeting  of  the  gentry  convened  at  Auldearn  by 
Lethin,  at  which  most  of  the  gentlemen  in  that  part  of  the  country 
were  present,  and  there  Lethin  produced  a letter  which,  he  said,  had 
come  from  Strathspey,  from  Grant,  which  informed  him  that  the 
M ‘Donalds  were  coming  down  to  invade  the  country,  and  there  he  pro- 
posed and  advised  that  the  gentlemen  should  stay  at  home  and  guard 
the  country,  and  not  go  out  to  the  king’s  host : Depones  the  letter  was 
read,  and  he  remembers  there  was  this  expression  in  it,  that  M‘Donald 
said  he  should  dine  at  Brodie,  and  sup  at  the  seaside ; which  affVighted 
the  country ; and  that,  at  the  same  time,  there  went  a fiery  cross 
through  the  country,  which  gave  the  same  alarm  : Depones  he  himself, 
and  several  of  the  gentry  present,  opposed  the  motion  of  staying  at 
home,  and  that,  having  secured  his  papers  in  a stone  wall,  he  and  his 
son  and  several  of  his  servants  went  out  against  the  rebels  : And  this 
is  the  truth,  as  he  shall  answer  to  God.  “ Thomas  Kinnaird. 


APPENDIX. 


483 


“ Francis  Wiseman,  one  of  the  bailies  of  Elgin,  being  solemnly 
sworn,  depones  that  the  very  sabbath  before  the  people  went  out  against 
the  rebels,  there  came  a fiery  cross  from  Birney  to  Elgin,  and  that  it 
was  talked  that  it  had  come  from  Knockandoch  to  Birney,  and  that 
it  alarmed  them  that  Mr.  M‘Donald  was  presently  coming  down  upon 
the  country,  which  so  frighted  them  that  they  kept  strong  guards  about 
the  town  : Depones  it  came  to  Elgin  in  the  hands  of  a servant  of  John 
Dikeside’s  as  he  was  informed  : And  this  is  the  truth,  as  he  shall  an 
swer  to  God.  ‘‘  Francis  Wiseman. 

“John  Innes  of  Dikeside,  in  Birney  parish,  depones  that  the  timf 
the  heritors  were  going  out  to  Both  well  bridge  against  the  rebels, 
there  was  a fiery  cross  that  came  through  the  country,  to  alarm  the 
country,  as  if  the  M ‘Donalds  were  coming  down  to  take  all  away, 
which  so  affrighted  the  people,  that  it  put  a stop  to  the  going  out  of 
the  gentry  and  militia  against  the  rebels  for  eight  days  : Depones  the 
cross  came  down  from  Gedloch,  by  a servant  of  John  Leslie’s  of  Mid- 
dletoun,  to  him,  and  the  deponent  gave  it  to  Peter  Kynes,  his  servant, 
who  carried  it  in  to  the  provost  of  Elgin : And  this  is  the  truth,  as  he 
shall  answer  to  God.  “ John  Innes. 

“ Mr.  John  Gumming,  minister  at  Birney,  being  solemnly  sworn, 
depones  that  the  time  the  people  were  making  ready  to  go  against  the 
rebels,  there  came  a fiery  cross  through  the  country,  from  Bothes  to 
the  parish  of  Birney,  and  they  said  it  came  from  Strathspey  to  that, 
and  that  the  alarm  went  that  M‘Donald  was  in  the  braes  of  Badenoch 
with  men  in  arms,  or  thereabout,  and  that  the  laird  of  Grant  was  ma- 
king ready,  and  raising  men  to  oppose  him  ; and  depones,  this  so  af- 
frighted the  country,  that  they  were  afraid  to  leave  their  houses  to  go 
out  to  the  king’s  host,  as  he  judged  : And  this  is  all  he  presently  re- 
members, and  the  truth,  as  he  shall  answer  to  God. 

“John  Gumming,  minister  at  Birney. 

“ Mr.  John  Leslie,  minister  at  Rothes,  depones  there  came  a fiery 
cross  from  the  parish  of  Dallas  to  the  parish  of  Rothes,  the  time  the 
heritors  were  going  out  against  the  rebels,  which  strangely  alarmed  the 
country,  as  if  M ‘Donald  w^ere  coming  with  a thousand  men  to  invade 
the  country,  and  it  was  a falsehood,  and  was  looked  upon  by  honest  men 
to  be  done  of  purpose  and  design  to  retard  the  king’s  service  : And  this 
is  the  truth,  as  he  shall  answer  to  God.  “ John  Leslie. 

“Archibald  Grant  of  Balmholm,  solemnly  sworn,  depones  he 
lives  in  Knockandoch  parish,  and  that  the  time  the  heritors  and  militia 
were  convening  to  go  out  against  the  rebels  at  Bothwell  bridge,  there 
came  a fiery  cross  from  Kirkdals,  which  is  in  Knockandoch  parish, 
down  the  country,  to  his  house,  and  from  that  to  Rothes,  and  down  to 
the  sea  : Depones  the  cross  went  from  house  to  house,  and  was  changed 
from  hand  to  hand,  to  give  the  quicker  alarm,  and  that  the  report  went 
with  it  that  M ‘Donald  was  in  the  hills  coming  down  to  invade  the  coun- 
try, which  strongly  affrighted  the  people,  and  retarded  their  going  out 


484 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


against  the  rebels,  but  the  deponent  himself  went  to  serve  the  king’s 
host,  against  the  rebels  : And  this  is  the  truth,  as  he  shall  answer  to 
God.  “ Archibald  Grant.”* 


No.  IX.— (p.  314.) 

Desired  Extension  of  the  Indulgence  to  Moi'ay shire* 

Though  no  active  measures  were  taken  at  Edinburgh  by  the  com- 
missioners referred  to  in  the  text,  for  the  extension  of  the  indulgence  to 
Morayshire,  the  entertainment  of  the  question  by  the  presbyterians  in 
the  north,  was  displeasing  to  the  government,  and  the  commissioners 
Df  the  privy  council  which  met  at  Elgin,  in  1685,  made  particular  in- 
quiries as  to  this  matter.  The  depositions  of  such  as  were  examined 
in  regard  to  it,  extracted  from  the  records  of  their  proceedings,  may  be 
interesting  to  the  reader.  They  are  as  follows  : — 

“ Elgin,  Feb.  10,  1685. 

“In  presence  of  the  earls  of  Errol  and  Kintore,  and  Sir  George 
Monro. 

“Sir  Hugh  Campbell  of  Calder,  being  solemnly  sworn,  depones 
that  about  July  10,  1679,  he  being  come  to  Brodie  to  visit  his  uncle, 
he  can  not  say  whether  he  was  called  or  came  accidentally,  his  uncle 
being  then  unwell,  he  used  to  come  oft  and  visit  him  ; Depones  when 
he  came  there  he  found  several  gentlemen,  such  as  Grant,  Grange, 
Lethin,  Kinsterie,  Milntoun,  Windiehill,  young  Innes,  and  Donald 
Campbell,  the  deponent’s  brother,  and  some  others,  to  whom  and  to 
the  deponent  Brodie  told  that  he  was  informed  that  the  king’s,  majesty 
had  granted  an  indulgence  to  those  be-south  Tay,  and  that  if  it  were 
known  that  any  there  had  a mind  to  have  the  like  indulgence,  it  might 
be  obtained.  It  was  spoke  of  whether  a petition  might  be  drawn  to 
that  purpose,  but  the  deponent  said  it  was  against  law,  and  was  not  to 
be  done.  The  next  thing  was  thought  on  was  to  s^nd  a gentleman  or 
two  to  Edinburgh,  to  see  what  was  in  the  matter,  and  whether  such  a 
thing  was  feasible,  and  it  was  proposed  that  young  Innes  and  Donald 
Campbell  should  go.  But  they  excusing  themselves  at  that  time,  Bro- 
die desired  Grange  to  go ; but  he  declined  it,  or  to  do  any  anything  by 
himself,  although  he  seemed  to  have  some  oilier  affairs  at  Edinburgh. 
Whereupon  Brodie  pressed  the  deponent  to  go  with  him,  in  respect  he 
knew  he  was  to  go  very  shortly,  however;  which,  at  Brodie’s  desire,  he 
condescended  to  do,  and  to  give  him  his  advice,  when  upon  the  place, 
if  he  could  see  that  anything  could  be  done  without  giving  offence. 
Whereupon  there  was  a letter  written,  and  left  blank  upon  the  back, 
that  Grange  and  the  deponent  might  fill  up  any  person’s  name  there 
they  should  think  fit,  if  they  saw  any  ground  to  think  that  their  desires 
could  be  granted.  The  letter  was  but  short,  narrating  what  we  heard, 
and  desiring  to  inform  himself  whether  an  indulgence  might  be  ob- 
tained ; and  the  only  argument  as  he  remembers  proposed  in  the  letter 

* Warants  of  Privy  Council. 


APPENDIX. 


485 


was  that  none  of  the  subscribers  had  ever  been  at  any  field-conventi- 
cle, and  had  never  joined  in  anns,  and  never  should  join  in  arms  with 
any  person  who  had,  or  should  take  arms  against  the  king’s  person,  or 
authority : Depones  likewise,  that  the  deponent  does  not  mind  how 
much  money  should  have  been  collected  for  the  expense  of  any  who 
should  [have]  been  employed  in  case  the  affair  could  have  been  prose- 
cute, but  the  deponent  well  remembers  that  Donald  Campbell,  his 
brother,  did  collect  five  hundred  pounds  Scots,  and  some  little  odds, 
v^diich  money,  with  the  letter  above  mentioned,  was  given  to  the  laird 
of  Grange  ; and  within  a few  days  after  the  deponent  and  he  came  to  Ed- 
inburgh, Grange  asked  the  deponent  what  to  do  with  the  letter,  and  he 
advised  him  to  destroy  it,  which  was  accordingly  done  ; and  when 
Grange  came  home,  leaving  the  deponent  at  Edinburgh,  he  left  the  five 
hundred  pounds,  and  odd  money,  with  the  deponent,  to  be  given  to  his 
brother,  who  was  not  then  arrived  at  Edinburgh,  and  accordingly  the 
deponent  held  compt  with  his  brother  anent  it.  This  is  all  he  remem- 
bers of  the  affair,  according  to  his  present  knowledge  and  memory,  as 
he  shall  answer  to  God  : Depones  the  letter  was  subscribed  (for  what 
the  deponent  knows)  by  all  that  were  present,  and  that  the  deponent 
himself  did  contribute  no  money  : Depones  Mr.  Robert  Martin  came 
to  the  deponent,  and  dealt  with  him,  that  he  might  be  employed  to  ne- 
gotiate to  obtain  the  indulgence,  but  the  deponent  absolutely  declined 
to  employ  him,  but  caused  destroy  the  letter  relating  to  it,  as  is  above 
said.  “H.  C.  of  Calder. 

“ Ludovick  Grant,  of  that  ilk,  being  solemnly  sworn,  depones  he 
was  at  Brodie  eight  or  ten  days  after  their  return  from  Bothwell  or 
thereby,  where  there  were  present  Calder,  Grange,  Lethin,  Innes 
younger,  and  other  gentlemen,  and  a letter  was  drawn  and  signed  by 
them,  but  not  direct  on  the  back,  but  to  have  been  backed  for  any  of 
the  statesmen  should  be  thought  most  fit,  that  they  might  deal  for  pro- 
curing the  indulgence  to  be  extended  to  this  country,  and  the  letter  was 
given  to  Calder  and  Grange,  who  carried  it  south,  and  the  affair  was 
referred  to  their  management : Depones  there  was  money  to  have  been 
given  to  Calder  and  Grange,  for  their  expense  in  going  to  Edinburgh. 
And  this  is  the  truth,  as  he  shall  answer  to  God. 

“Ludovick  Grant. 

“ Thomas  Dunbar  of  Grange,  being  solemnly  sworn,  depones  that 
Innes  younger  told  the  deponent,  about  the  12th  of  July,  1679,  that 
there  was  an  indulgenc^granted  to  the  west  and  south  of  Scotland,  and 
within  a few  days  thereafter  he  had  occasion  to  be  at  my  Lord  Bro- 
die’s  house  seeing  him,  where  there  was  Innes  younger,  Calder,  Grant, 
Kilravock,  Lethin,  Milntoun,  and  Donald  Campbell ; and  being  dis- 
coursing anent  the  indulgence,  old  Brodie  told  that  he  had  got  some 
advertisement  that  there  was  indulgence  granted,  and  thought,  if  we 
moved  any  such  thing,  we  might  have  the  like  favor  granted  to  us  : 
whereupon  the  gentlemen  above  named  resolved  that  they  would  draw 
a letter ; which  accordingly  was  done,  the  contents  whereof  were  in 

41* 


486 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


these  terms  : That  forasmuch  as  his  majesty  had  been  js^raciously  pleased 
to  grant  indulgence  to  the  south  and  west  parts  of  Scotland,  and  who 
had  been  in  actual  rebellion  against  his  majesty,  and  kept  field  con- 
venticles, the  like  whereof  had  never  been  in  these  parts  of  Scot- 
land, and  we  hoped  tliere  never  should  be  such  practices  found  among 
us,  that  therefore  their  lordships  would  be  pleased  to  try  if  his  majesty 
would  be  pleased  to  extend  his  gracious  favor  to  this  place  of  the  coun- 
try. This  letter  was  left  blank  upon  the  back  as  to  the  address,  till  it 
should  be  considered  whether  it  should  have  been  addressed  to  my 
lord  chancellor  or  my  lord  secretary.  Young  Innes  and  Donald  Camp- 
bell were  desired  to  go  south  with  the  letter.  Donald  Campbell  could 
not  go  at  that  time,  and  Innes  would  not  go  without  him.  Whereupon 
the  laird  of  Calder  and  the  deponent  being  going,  however,  the  letter 
was  given  to  them,  that  they  might  try  what  might  be  gotten  done  in 
the  matter ; and  they  having  come  to  Edinburgh,  he  thinks  before  the 
20th  of  July,  found  that  there  was  no  place  for  moving  in  that  matter, 
but  rather  that  the  indulgence  granted  was  like  to  be  retracted,  they 
did  not  move  at  all,  less  or  more,  but  tore  the  letter,  and  came  home 
how  soon  they  had  done  their  business : Depones  Mr.  Robert  Martin 
would  be  intruding  himself  upon  the  employment,  but  they  gave  him 
none  : And  this  is  the  truth,  as  he  shall  answer  to  God. 

“ Thomas  Dunbar. 

“Francis  Brodie  of  Milntoun,  being  solemnly  sworn,  depones  that 
about  the  beginning  of  July,  1679,  being  at  Brodie  at  a meeting' where 
there  were  present  Grant,  Grange,  Calder,  Innes  younger,  Kilravock, 
and  some  others  (but  remembers  not  if  Pitgavenie  was  there),  there 
was  a letter  drawn  which  he  conceives  was  direct  to  the  chancellor,  or 
lords  of  privy  council,  and  a warrant  or  instructions  given  to  young 
Innes  and  Donald  Campbell,  to  go  south,  to  deal  and  negotiate  that  this 
country  might  participate  of  his  majesty’s  favor  and  indulgence  granted 
to  those  in  the  south  and  west  of  Scotland  ; and  money  was  to  have 
been  given  for  their  expense  as  he  heard,  but  himself  gave  none  : And 
this  is  the  truth,  as  he  shall  answer  to  God. 

“ Francis  Brodie, 

“ Errgl, 

“ Kintore, 

“ G.  Monro.”* 


No.  X.— (p.  350.)  - 

t^ense  in  which  the  Covenanters  refused  to  say  “ God  save  the  KingP 

Though  it  is  incorrect  tQ  affirm  that  Margaret  Wilson  refused  to 
save  her  life  by  saying  “ God  save  the  king,”  yet  many  of  the  cove- 
nanters no  doubt  refused  to  say  this  even  to  save  their  lives.  It  would, 
however,  be  to  take  a very  superficial  view  of  the  case,  to  ascribe  this 
to  a foolish  obstinacy.  They  were  quite  ready  to  use  the  words  in  the 

* WaiTants  of  Privy  Council. 


APPENDIX. 


487 


spirit  of  that  exhortation  of  Panl : “I  exhort,  therefore,  that,  first  of 
all,  supplications,  prayers,  intercessions,  and  giving  of  thanks,  be  made 
for  all  men ; for  kings  and  for  all  that  are  in  authority  ; that  we  may 
lead  a quiet  and  peaceable  life  in  all  godliness  and  honesty”  (1  Tim. 
ii.  1,  2).  The  sense  in  which  they  declined  to  say  “God  save  the 
king”  was  the  sense  put  upon  the  words  by  their  persecutors — a sense 
which  implied  an  acknowledgment  not  only  of  the  king’s  civil  suprema- 
cy, which  all  the  presbyterians,  with  the  exception  of  the  Cameronians, 
were  ready  to  make,  but  also  of  his  ecclesiastical  supremacy,  an  ac- 
knowledgment which  none  of  them  could  consistently  make,  as,  accord- 
ing to  their  principles,  this  would  have  been  sacrilegiously  to  yield  to 
him  that  headship  over  the  church  which  Christ  claims  as  his  exclu- 
sive and  inalienable  prerogative.  When,  in  August,  1684,  John  Camp- 
bell of  Over- Wei  wood,  in  Ayrshire,  was  imprisoned  in  Glasgow,  Wind- 
ram  asked  him  if  he  would  pray  for  the  king.  Campbell  answered 
that  he  both  did  and  would  pray  that  the  Lord  would  enable  him  to 
live  a godly  life  here,  and  bestow  upon  him  a life  of  glory  hereafter. 
“ That  is  not  enough,”  said  Windram  ; “ you  must  pray  for  King  Charles 
II.  as  he  is  supreme  over  all  persons  and  causes,  ecclesiastical  as  well 
as  civil.”  Campbell  replied  that  in  his  opinion  that  was  “ praying  for 
him  as  the  head  of  the  church,  which  belonged  only  to  Christ ; and  he 
reckoned  it  arrogance  in  any  creature  whatsoever  to  claim  it.” — Wod- 
row’s  History,  vol.  iv.,  p.  49. 


No.  XL— (p.  377.) 

Countess  of  Argyll's  Sympathy  with  the  Covenanters, 

In  illustration  of  this  lady’s  benevolent  sympathy  with  and  favor  for 
the  persecuted  presbyterians,  we  may  here  insert  the  two  following 
letters,  addressed  to  “ Mr.  Robert  Miller,  merchant  in  the  exchange 
at  Edinburgh;”  which  refer  to  some  individual  not  named,  who  was 
evidently  suffering  for  nonconformity,  and  in  whom  she  felt  deeply  in- 
terested : — 

Letter  I. 

Stirling,  September  8,  1683. 

“ Loving  Friend  : I received  yours,  for  which  I heartily  thank 
you.  I was  both  satisfied  and  grieved  to  read  all  you  sent  me.  My 
heart  felt  what  he  was  suffering,  as  much  as  any  alive  ; for  I both  love 
and  respect  that  person,  and,  were  it  fit  for  me,  would  go  far  to  do  him 
any  good.  But  I hope  in  Him  [that  he]  who  is  merciful,  and  hath  a 
care  of  his  own,  and  also  of  the  innocent,  will  show  his  sovereign  power, 
and  not  only  preserve  him,  but  bring  him  through  this  his  trouble,  and 
reward  all  does  [who  do]  him  good.  I spoke  to  my  Lady  Arroll  for 
him,  and  I think  it  were  not  amiss  his  sister  Mary  came  in,  and  spake 
to  her  and  the  Lady  Largo,  and  tell  her  all  that  belongs  him  remem- 
bers their  kindness  to  their  father,  and  that  even  he  expects  they  will 


488 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


do  him  good  in  what  is  in  their  power.  I w'as  much  for  Mary’s  going 
to  England.  I wish  she  could  go  yet,  and  that  your  affairs  would 
allow  you.  I shall  not  offer  to  desire  it  absolutely ; but  since  you  go 
once  a year,  I would  be  in  your  debt  five  pounds,  so  you  could  go  and 
assist.him,  and  take  Mary  with  you ; and  she  being  a woman  and  a 
sister,  might  venture  where  it  were  not  fit  to  you  to  go.  I should  write 
wdth  her  to  some,  and  you  would  be  able  to  advise  her,  and  do  things 
she  could  not  do.  I went  and  spoke  to  the  advocate  ere  he  went,  and 

he  and  his  lady  promised  to  do  Mr.  W all  the  service  they  could  ; 

and  her  woman,  Mrs.  Carintoun,  promised  to  mind  them.  So  the 
sooner  any  go,  it  were  the  better.  Let  your  cousin  Mary  know  of  all 
that  you  sent  to  me  ; and  if  you  kept  the  cipher  of  them,  ler  her  see 
them  and  advise  with  her  lady,  who  I am  sure  will  not  hinder  her  to 
go,  and  I doubt  not  will  assist  him,  and  I think  so  should  all  that  con- 
cerns him  for  whom  he  is  innocently  suffering,  only  because  he  served 
him  he  is  suspected.  The  great  God  direct  well  all  that  may  contrib- 
ute for  his  relief  and  advantage.  I expect  to  hear  by  the  bearer  from 
you  : so  adieu  ! 

“P.  S. — The  enclosed  I would  have  you  to  send  with  some  sure 
hand  to  Fife,  to  my  Sophia.  If  you  will  be  pleased  to  speak  to  George 
M‘Kenzie,  or  his  man,  to  send  any  of  my  son’s  servants  to  you,  that  is 
going  to  Fife,  he  will  do  it.” 


Letter  II. 

“ Loving  Friend  : Since  your  own  affairs  takes  you  not  where  I 
wished  you  to  go,  I will  not  take  on  me  to  send  you.  But  if  you  had 
been  to  go,  I would  have  been  content  with  all  my  heart  to  have  been, 
as  I said,  five  pounds  in  your  debt,  so  you  could  have  served  your  wor- 
thy cousin,  and  been  useful  to  him  at  this  time.  Had  I had  the  money 
beside  me  when  I wrote,  I had  sent  it  you ; and  had  I money,  or 
could  get  my  own,  I could  have  sent  one  with  a better  sum,  if  it  could 
contribute  to  his  good,  for  whom  I have  a real  kindness ; for  the  Lord, 
I hope,  will  be  in  place  of  all  to  him,  and  let  the  world  see  his  inno- 
cence and  faithfulness.  If  I have  time,  I will  write  to  your  cousin 
Mary.  I have  time  to  say  no  more  but 


No.  XII.— (p.  384.) 

A Letter  of  the  Earl  of  Argyll  to  his  Lady,  in  Ciphers, 

This  letter  was  probably  wTitten  after  he  heard  that  the  conspiracy 
was  discovered  ; and  it  abounds  in  mute  ciphers.  It  is  as  follows  : — 

* These  two  letters  are  printed  from  copies  obligingly  communicated  by  David 
Laing,  Esq  , Signet  Library.  There  is  a letter  written  by  the  same  lady  to  Mr. 
lloberd  Douglas,  dated  London,  August  21,  1669,  in  vol.  xxvi.,  folio,  No.  112  of  the 
Wodrow  MSS.  But  this  letter  I have  not  seen.  The  volume  in  which  it  is  to  be 
found  is  probably  in  the  possession  of  the  very  Rev.  Principal  Lee. 


APPENDIX. 


489 


“ 

32 

67 

48 

45 

25 

43 

24 

51 

26 

41 

44 

36 

51 

40 

43 

44 

69 

28 

37 

26 

54 

56 

48 

57 

53 

52 

39 

44 

56 

27 

47 

44 

29 

48 

57 

39 

50 

53 

57 

58 

22 

53 

53 

40 

50 

48 

52 

58 

57 

64 

54 

59 

56 

54 

53 

57 

44 

57 

68 

58 

47 

56 

48 

42 

44 

51 

69 

21 

56 

44 

43 

57 

51 

40 

43 

44 

28 

54 

56 

53 

54 

53 

58 

48 

58 

48 

53 

52 

20 

53 

45 

44 

59 

44 

56 

62 

67 

58 

47 

48 

52 

40 

32 

51 

48 

46 

47 

58 

57 

44 

42 

59 

56 

44 

39 

41 

56 

40 

52 

43 

60 

48 

58 

47 

53 

59 

58 

40 

41 

53 

61 

64 

58 

47 

44 

52 

58 

53 

43 

44 

40 

50 

44 

60 

48 

58 

47 

41 

48 

56 

42 

57 

41 

59 

58 

48 

58 

48 

57 

52 

53 

58 

58 

40 

50 

49 

48 

52 

46 

60 

48 

50 

43 

53 

44 

48 

58 

64 

60 

47 

50 

58 

48 

57 

74 

40 

54 

44 

52 

44 

43 

52 

44 

44 

43 

97 

52 

53 

58 

47 

48 

52 

43 

44 

56 

41 

59 

58 

57 

47 

53 

59 

50 

43 

45 

59 

56 

58 

47 

44 

56 

44 

51. 

The  above 

letter  deciphered. 

and  mutes 

pointed 

out ; 

* m stands 

for  mute : — 

in  m m Duke  m Monmouth  mm  mm  m m m 

“ 32  67  If  25  D 27  M 26  be  36  made  69  28  prison395r,  27  he  29 

mm  mm  Carstaira 

is  39  lost  22  to  all  intents  and  purposes.  68.  Thrice  Mr.  6921  Redf 

rn  ^ ^ m m m ^ m Scotland 

made  28  proposition  20  of  every  67  thing  32  might  secure  39  Brand 

battle  England 

without  a box,  and  then  to  deal  with  Birch ; but  it  is  not  talking  will 
do  it;  and  what  has  happened  need  not  hinder,  but  should  further 
them.”f 


No.  XIII.— (P.  394.) 

Extracts  from  a Letter  of  the  Countess  of  Argyll,  to  her  Son,  Colin,  Earl 
of  Balcarres, 

The  letter  from  which  the  following  extracts  are  taken,  was  written 
by  the  countess  to  her  son,  after  his  marriage,  at  an  early  age,  to  Mad- 
emoiselle Mauritia  de  Nassau,  daughter  of  Louis  de  Nassau,  count  of 
Beverwaert  and  Auverquerque,  in  Holland, ||  by  Elizabeth,  countess 
of  Horn.  The  particulars  of  the  marriage  have  more  than  the  interest 
of  romance.  The  young  Mauritia  had  fallen  in  love  with  Colin,  who 
was  extremely  handsome,  at  his  first  presentation  at  the  court  of  Charles 
II. ; and,  ere  long,  the  day  was  fixed  for  their  marriage.  “ The  prince 
of  Orange,  afterward  William  III.,  presented  his  fair  kinswoman,  on 
this  joyful  occasion,  with  a pair  of  magnificent  emerald  ear-rings,  as 
his  wedding-gift.  The  day  arrived,  the  noble  party  were  assembled  in 
the  church,  and  the  bride  was  at  the  altar ; but,  to  the  dismay  of  the 

^ As,  by  the  alphabet  made  use  of  in  this  letter,  40  stands  for  the  letter  a,  41  for  b, 
and  so  on  till  you  come  to  64,  which  stands  for  & ; the  way  to  distinguish  the  mutes 
from  the  significant  ciphers  is,  to  observe  whether  any  two  figures  fall  within  the 
compa.ss  of  the  alphabet  from  40  to  64.  Thus,  the  figures  32,  67,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  letter,  are  mutes,  32  being  a number  below  the  first  cipher,  and  67  a number 
above  the  last. 

t This  alludes  to  a plan  which  Mr.  Carstairs  had  formed  for  surprising  the  castle 
of  Edinburgh.  I Carstairs’  State  Papers,  p.  107. 

|j  Natural  son  of  Maurice,  prince  of  Orange. 


490 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


company,  no  bridegroom  appeared  ! The  volatile  Colin  had  forgotten 
the  day  of  his  marriage,,  and  was  discovered  in  his  night-gown  and 
slip{)ers,  quietly  eating  his  breakfast!  Thus  far  the  tale  is  told  with 
a smile  on  the  lip,  but  many  a tear  was  shed  at  the  conclusion.  Colin 
hurried  to  the  church,  but  in  his  haste  left  the  ring  in  his  writing-case ; 
a friend  in  the  company  gave  him  one — the  ceremony  went  on,  and, 
without  looking  at  it,  he  placed  it  on  the  finger  of  his  fair  young  bride. 
It  was  a mourning-ring,  with  the  morthead  and  crossed  bones.  On 
perceiving  it  at  the  close  of  the  ceremony,  she  fainted  away  ; and  the 
evil  omen  had  made  such  an  impression  on  her  mind  that,  on  recover- 
ing, she  declared  she  should  die  within  the  year,  and  her  presentiment 
was  too  truly  fulfilled. 

“ It  was  in  the  joy  of  seeing  Colin  established,  to  all  appearance,  so 
happily  fc^  life,  that  his  mother  addressed  him  an  admirable  letter  of 
advice,  moral,  religious,  political  and  domestic.  No  subject  is  left  un- 
touched, of  which  a mother  would  be  anxious  to  impress  right  ideas  on 
a son.” 

She  thus  writes  in  the  beginning  : “ Because  the  interest  of  the  soul 
is  preferable  to  that  of  the  body,  I shall  first  desire  you  to  be  serious  in 
your  religion,  worshipping  your  God,  and  let  your  dependence  be  con- 
stantly upon  him  for  all  things ; the  first  step  in  it  is  to  believe  in  God, 
that  he  made  and  upholds  the  universe  in  wisdom,  in  goodness,  and  in 
justice ; that  we  must  adore,  obey  him,  and  approve  of  all  he  does. 
The  fear  of  God,  says  Solomon,  is  the  beginning  of  knowledge ; he  is 
a buckler  to  all  that  walk  uprightly.  Dedicate  some  certain  time  eve- 
ry day  to  the  service  of  your  glorious  Maker  and  Redeemer;  in  that, 
take  a survey  of  your  life,  shorter  or  longer,  as  the  time  will  permit ; 
thank  him  for  making  you  what  you  are — for  redeeming  you,  giving 
you  his  Word  and  Spirit,  and  that  you  live  under  the  gospel — for  all 
the  faculties  of  your  soul  and  body — that  you  are  descended  of  Chris- 
tian parents — for  your  provisions — for  all  you  have  in  possession. 
Read,  pray ; consider  the  life  and  death  of  your  blessed  Savior  and 
Lord,  and  your  heart  will  be  warmed  with  that  love  that  is  beyond  ex- 
pression, that  meekness  and  humility  that  endured  the  contradiction  of 
sinners  against  himself.  Strive  to  conform  to  him  ; no  fraud,  no  guile, 
no  evil-speaking  was  found  with  him,  for  all  the  injustice  and  wicked 
backbiting  he  met  with ; he  was  kind,  doing  always  good.  He  for- 
gave, was  patient  in  enduring  injuries,  was  charitable.  My  dear  son, 
the  great  work  to  which  we  are  called  is  to  be  partakers  of  his  holy, 
harmless  nature  ; true  religion  stands  in  imitating  of  him  and  converse 
with  him.  ‘ Truly,’  says  the  apostle  John,  ‘ our  fellowship  is  with 
the  Father  and  the  Son.’  David  says,  ‘Evening,  and  morning,  and 
mid-da^q  will  I pray  to  Thee.’  We  have  directions  and  examples  in 
the  Holy  Word  for  what  we  should  do  ; and  we  are  told  to  watch  and 
pray  that  we  be  not  led  into  temptation  (they  are  oft  most  afraid  of 
them  that  are  most  resolved  and  best  acquainted  to  resist  them)  ; to 
implore  his  help  for  supply  of  grace  and  strength,  or  of  what  we  need  ; 
and  to  encourage  us  to  it,  he  says  none  shall  seek  his  face  in  vain.  He 


APPENDIX. 


491 


gives  us  liis  Holy  Word  that  we  may  daily  read  out  of  it  Divine  les- 
sons ; it  is  a lantern  to  our  feet  to  walk  cleanly,  and  sure  it  is  for  in- 
struction and  direction  in  righteousness ; read  often  of  the  life  and 
death  of  your  Savior;  read  the  book  of  Psalms,  Proverbs,  and  Eccle- 
siastes ; often  the  Epistles,  not  neglecting  the  other  Scriptures ; for 
other  books,  I would  have  you  read  those  most  that  will  make  you 
know  the  Scriptures  and  your  duty ; and  yourself  must  make  con- 
science of  your  duty  to  your  particular  relations.” 

To  his  prince  she  inculcates  loyalty  and  reverence  ; to  his  country, 
love  and  protection  ; reminding  him,  however,  that  public  characters 
are  unhappy,  except  in  times  when  virtue  is  loved  for  its  own  sake. 
“ Strive,”  says  she,  “to  enrich  your  mind  with  virtue,  and  let  it  be 
attended  with  the  golden  chain  of  knowledge,  temperance,  patience, 
godliness,  brotherly  kindness,  and  charity.”  Possessed  of  these, 
“ though  you  were  bereft  of  all  the  world  can  give  you  or  take  from 
you,  you  are  justly  to  be  accounted  happy.” 

Friendship  she  holds  as  the  choicest  earthly  blessing,  but  she  gives 
her  son  important  cautions  and  advices  on  the  subject.  “Where  the 
fear  of  God  is  not,”  says  she,  “and  the  practice  of  Christian  virtues, 
that  friendship  can  not  stand  long ; there  is  certainly  a secret  curse  in 
that  friendship  whereof  God  is  not  the  foundation  and  the  end.  Let 
not  the  least  jealousy  of  your  faithful  friend  enter  into  your  mind,  but 
whatever  he  do,  think  it  was  well  intended  ; in  some  cases  it  is  better 
to  be  deceived  than  distrust.” 

Yet  “though  friendship  be  the  greatest  solace  of  life,  it  proves  not 
always  firm  enough  to  repose  the  soul  absolutely  upon.  The  fixedness 
of  all  things  here  below  depends  on  God,  who  would  have  us  to  fix  all 
our  peace  and  contentment,  even  this  we  enjoy  in  the  creatures,  on 
himself.  There  is  great  reason  for  it.  It’s  much  if  our  friend’s  judg- 
ment, affection,  and  interest,  long  agree  ; if  there  be  but  a difference  in 
any  of  these,  it  doth  much  to  mar  all,  the  one  being  constrained  to 
love  that  the  other  loves  not ; one  of  you  may  have  a friend  whose 
favor  may  make  great  breaches,  an  Ahithophel  or  a Ziba ; our  Savior 
had  those  who  followed  him  for  interest,  that  did  soon  forsake  him,  and 
turned  his  betrayers  and  enemies.  If  one  of  you  be  calmer  nor  [than] 
the  other,  and  allows  not  all  the  other  does  out  of  humor,  this  causes 
mistakes.  As  a man  is,  so  is  his  strength.  A virtuous,  faithful  friend, 
whose  ways  are  ordered  of  God,  who  is  of  a sweet,  equal,  cheerful 
humor,  not  jealous,  not  easily  made  to  break  the  friendship  he  hath 
made  on  good  grounds,  which  is  understood  to  be  kindled  from  heaven, 
is  certainly  the  greatest  jewel  on  earth.  But  if  God  so  dispose  of  it, 
that  your  friends,  though  the  nearest  relations  on  earth,  change  to  you, 
strive  to  be  constant  to  them,  and  to  overcome  all  with  patience.  Let 
meekness  smooth  over  all  their  passions,  espouse  their  interest,  pursue 
them  with  kindness  and  serviceableness  of  all  kinds,  seek  reconciliation 
on  any  terms,  amend  what  they  think  amiss.  Let  ingenuity  be  in  all 
your  words  and  actions ; put  on  charity,  which  is  the  bond  of  perfec- 
tion, which  suffereth  long,  is  kind,  envieth  not ; forbear  upbraiding 


492 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


or  repeating  what  you  have  done  to  oblige  them,  but  look  on  what  you 
do  for  your  friends,  and  their  acceptance  of  it,  as  that  wherefore  you 
are  most  indebted  to  them ; from  those  you  are  engaged  to  in  friend- 
ship strive  to  be  content  with  frowns  as  well  as  smiles;  bear  all  their 
infirmities,  considering  they  must  bear  yours. 

»********^i» 

“ To  be  kind  to  your  sisters  is  not  only  the  earnest  desire  of  your 
mother,  who  lodged  you  all  in  her  womb ; but  what  is  far  more,  it  is 
commanded  you  by  the  Spirit  of  God  to  add  to  your  faith  and  virtue, 

‘ brotherly  kindness.’  ‘ A brother,’  says  Solomon,  ‘is  born  for  adver- 
sity.’ If  it  be  enjoined  us  to  bear  this  kindness  to  all  that  love  God, 
our  Lord  and  Father,  far  more  are  you  to  bear  it  to  your  sisters,  who 
are  both  lovers  of  God,  and  your  own  sisters  also.  ‘ A brother  loves 
at  all  times,’  saith  Solomon.  They  have  you  now  for  their  father;  be 
kind  to  them  as  he  was,  and  live  as  you  would  have  yours  to  do  after 
you  are  gone.  God,  I hope,  will  requite  your  brotherly  care  and 
kindness  with  a blessing  to  you  in  your  own.  St.  John  saith,  he  that 
loves  his  brother  (I  may  say  sisters  also)  lives  in  light,  and  there  is  no 
occasion  of  stumbling  in  him.  Good  Abraham  said  to  Lot,  ‘ Let  not 
strife  be  betwixt  thee  and  me,  and  thy  servants  and  mine,  we  are 
brethren.’  Our  Savior  has  told  us,  ‘A  family  divided  can  not  stand  ;’ 
and  saith  the  Spirit  of  God,  ‘ How  pleasant  it  is  to  see  brethren  to 
dwell  together  in  unity  !’  A threefold  cord  is  not  easily  broken  ; how 
pleasant,  how  easy  it  is  to  live  in  love,  and  to  do  our  duty  to  all ! 
Their  virtue,  I hope,  will  make  you  love  and  trust  them.” 

To  regard  his  wife  as  the  dearest  friend  of  his  bosom  (“  Believe  it,” 
she  says,  “no  man  is  happy  but  he  that  is  so  in  his  own  house,”),  to 
educate  his  children  in  the  fear  and  love  of  God,  in  truth  and 
knowledge,  telling  them  “ of  the  virtues  of  those  who  have  been  before 
them,  that  they  may  do  nothing  base  or  unworthy  that  looks  like  de- 
generating from  them,”  “ to  maintain  an  orderly  and  religious  house- 
hold, shunning  whisperers  and  flatterers,  that  sail  with  all  winds;”  to 
be  kind  to  his  servants  in  their  vigor,  and  careful  of  them  in  age  and 
sickness ; to  love,  rather  than  hate  his  enemies ; and,  to  extend  his 
charity  beyond  the  external  duties  of  a Christian  toward  the  poor  and 
afflicted,  to  the  regulations  of  his  opinions  with  regard  to  others,  ques- 
tioning his  own,  rather  than  their  judgment;  learning  of  his  Savior  to 
be  meek,  and  remembering  that  “ God  was  not  in  the  thunder  or  the 
fire,  but  in  the  calm,  still  voice  ;”  to  be  modest  in  society  abroad,  and 
to  look  on  the  careful  management  of  his  affairs  at  home  as  a duty — 
these,  and  many  other  incidental  duties,  are  enforced  with  affection  as 
tender  as  the  language  is  energetic. 

“ Your  good  grandfather.  Lord  David,”  she  concludes,  “ thought 
that  day  misspent  he  knew  not  some  new  thing.  He  was  a very  stu- 
dious and  diligent  man  in  his  affairs.  You  that  have  such  a closet 
[library],  such  gardens,  and  so  much  to  do  within  doors  and  without, 
need  not  think  the  time  tedious,  nor  be  idle ; it  is  the  hand  of  the  dil- 
igent maketh  rich  The  good  man  orders  his  affairs  with  discretion ; 


APPENDIX. 


493 


it  is  the  diligent  that  is  the  only  person  fit  for  government ; Solomon 
saith,  his  thoughts  tend  to  plenteousness,  and  he  may  stand  before 
kings. 

“ My  care  hath  been  great  for  you  and  your  family,  and  you  may 
see  by  this,  I will  be  always,  my  dear  son,  your  kind  mother, 

“Anna  Argyll.”* 


No.  XIV.— (P.  408.) 

The  Sufferings  of  Sir  Duncan  Campbell  of  Auchinhrech, 

The  account  in  the  text  is  confirmed  by  a “petition  of  Sir  Duncan 
Campbell  for  himself  and  his  distressed  friends,  tenants,  and  vassals, 
in  Knapdale,  Glassary,  and  Kelislait,”  presented  to  the  estates  of  par- 
liament after  the  revolution.  Referring  to  his  having  taken  up  arms 
with  the  earl  of  Argyll,  in  1685,  “in  defence  of  the  protestant  religion, 
and  in  opposition  to  popery  and  arbitrary  power,”  the  petition  states 
that  the  “ petitioner  having,  from  his  sense  of  the  justice  and  necessity 
of  the  said  earl,  his  undertaking,  and  for  the  defence  of  the  country, 
cause  man  and  garrison  his  house  of  Carnassary ; the  same  was  be- 
sieged, and  a treaty  for  surrender  being  in  dependence,  the  deceased 

Lauchlane  M‘Laine,  of  Torlisk,  Lauchlane  M‘Laine,  of  Coll, 

M‘Laine,  of  Ardgour, M‘Laine,  of  Kenlochalin, M'Laine, 

of  Lochbuy,  Donald  M‘Neil,  of  Collachie,  Archibald  M‘Lauchlane, 

of  Craiginterave,  and  M ‘Kerch  nie,  in  Kin  tyre,  conjunctly  and 

severally,  with  their  barbarous  accomplices,  did  in  the  first  place  cause 
hang  Dugald  M‘Tavish,  fiar  of  Dunardarie,  at  the  said  house  of  Car- 
na»ssary,  and  immediately  after  the  surrendering  thereof,  did  barbarously 
murder  Alexander  Campbell,  of  Strondour,  the  petitioner’s  uncle,  and 
without  any  regard  to  any  conditions  of  faith  given,  they  did  fall  upon 
and  w'ound  above  twenty  of  the  soldiers  of  the  garrison,  plunder  and 
carry  away  out  of  the  said  house  threescore  horse  led  [i.e.,  laden]  of 
goods  and  plenishing,  and  after  all  these  cruelties  and  robberies,  the 
said  deceased  Lauchlane  M‘Laine,  of  Torlisk,  with  his  above-named 
followers  and  accomplices,  did  set  fire  to  the  said  house  of  Carnassary, 
and  burn  it  to  ashes,  and  after  all,  your  petitioner’s  estate  being  an- 
nexed to  the  crown,  the  rents  thereof  were  intromitted  with,  and  up- 
lifted by  William  Stewart,  of  Craigtown,  as  having  commission  from 
the  lords  of  the  treasury,  since  the  year  1685,  to  Martinmas,  1689,  and 
the  same  are  yet  in  his  hands;  and  during  this  space,  the  said  friends, 
tenants,  and  vassals,  were,  by  the  arbitrary  exactions  of  the  deceased 
viscount  of  Strathallan,  and  Sir  John  Drummond,  of  Machonie,  op- 
pressed, leased,  and  damnified  in  certain  great  sums  of  money : likeas, 
the  said  Donald  M‘Neil  of  Collachie,  and  Archibald  M‘Lauchlane,  of 
Craiginterave,  did  intromit  with  and  take  up  out  of  the  parishes  of 
Knapdale,  Kelislate,  Glassary,  and  Ariskeodnish  [z.6.,  Kilmartin],  the 
number  of  2000  cows,  belonging  to  the  petitioner,  his  friends  and  ten- 
ants ; and  the  said  M‘Kerchnie,  in  Kintyre,  did  seize  upon  the  haill 
^ Lives  of  the  Lindsays,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  120-128. 

32 


494 


THE  LADIES  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


goods  and  plenishing  within  the  petitioner’s  house  of  Lochgair,  where- 
through the  petitioner,  his  said  friends,  tenants,  and  vassals,  are  disa- 
bled, leased,  and  damnified  in  the  sums  of  money  and  avails  following : 
viz.,  by  the  burning  of  the  said  house  of  Carnassary,  in  the  sum  of 
d€20,000  Scots ; by  the  taking  away  of  the  said  goods,  as  will  appear 
by  a particular  list,  in  the  sum  of  6020,000  money  foresaid ; by  his 
lying  out  of  his  estate  intromitted  with  by  the  said  William  Stewart 
in  the  sum  of  6024,000  money  foresaid  ; by  the  said  arbitrary  exactions 
of  the  said  viscount  Strathallan  and  Sir  John  Drummond,  of  Macho- 
nie,  in  the  sum  of  6012,000  money  aforesaid  ; and  by  the  said  Donald 
McNeil,  and  Archibald  M‘Lauchlane,  of  Craiginterave,  their  intromit- 
ting with  and  taking  up  of  the  said  2000  cows,  in  the  sum  of  6040,000 
money  foresaid  ; and  by  the  said  M‘Kerchnie,  his  taking  away  of  the 
plenishing  of  the  house  of  Lochgair,  in  the  sum  of  602000  money  fore- 
said ; extending  in  haill  the  said  sums,  to  the  sum  of  60118,000  Scots 
money  foresaid.”* 

*■  Acts  of  the  Parliament  of  Scotland,  July  8,  1690 


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ca, in  the  Years  1811-'12-'13  and  1814;  or,  the  First  Settlement  on  the 
Pacific.  By  Gabriel  Franchere.  Translated  and  Edited  by  J.  V.  Hunt- 
ington. 12mo,  cloth.  Plates.  Price  $1  00. 

Las  Cases’  Na^Doleon.  Memoirs  of  the  Life,  Exile,  and 

Conversations  of  the  Emperor  Napoleon.  By  the  Count  Las  Cases. 
With  Portraits  on  steel,  woodcuts,  &c.  4 a^oIs.,  12mo,  cloth,  $4  00 ; half 
calf  or  morocco  extra,  $8  00. 


REDFIELD’S  publication?. HISTORY  AxNO  EIOGRAPIIY.  3 


Life  of  the  Kt.  Hon.  Jolin  Philpot  Curran.  By  his  Son, 

Wm.  Henry  Curran ; with  Notes  and  Additions,  by  Dr.  R.  Shelton  Mac- 
kenzie, and  a Portrait  on  Steel.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  25. 

Sketches  of  the  Irish  Bar.  By  the  Biglit  Hon.  Richard 

Lalor  Sheil,  M.  P.  Edited,  with  a Memoir  and  Notes,  by  Dr.  R.  Shelton 
Mackenzie.  Fourth  Edition.  In  2 vols.  Price  $2  00. 

Barrington’s  Sketches.  Personal  Sketches  of  his  Own 

Time.  By  Sir  Jonah  Barrington,  Judge  of  the  High  Court  of 
Admiralty  in  Ireland;  with  Illustrations  by  Daiiey.  Third  Edition. 
12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  25. 

Moore’s  Life  of  Sheridan.  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  the 

Rt.  Hon.  Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan.  By  Thomas  Moore  ; with  Por- 
trait after  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds.  2 vols.,  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $2  00. 

Men  of  the  Time,  or  Sketches  of  Living  Notables,  Au- 
thors, Architects,  Artists,  Composers,  Demagogues,  Divines,  Dramatists, 
Engineers,  Journalists,  Ministers,  Monarchs,  Novelists,  Politicians,  Poets, 
Philanthropists,  Preachers,  Savans,  Statesmen,  Travellers,  Voyagers,  War- 
riors. 1 voL,  12mo.  Containing  nearly  Nine  Hundred  Biographical 
Sketches.  Price  $1  50. 

Lorenzo  Benoni ; or,  Passages  in  the  Life  of  an  Italian. 

Edited  by  a Friend.  1 voL,  12mo.  $1  00. 

The  Workingman’s  Way  in  the  World.  Being  the  Au- 
tobiography of  a Journeyman  Printer.  By  Charles  Manbt  Smith, 
Author  of  “ Curiosities  of  London  Life.^'  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  00. 

Classic  and  Historic  Portraits.  By  James  Bruce. 

12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  00. 

Ladies  of  the  Covenant.  Memoirs  of  Distinguished 

Scottish  Females,  embracing  the  Period  of  the  Covenant  and  the  Perse- 
cution. By  Rev.  James  Anderson.  1 vol.,  12mo.  Price  $1  25. 

Tom  Moore’s  Suppressed  Letters.  Notes  from  the  Let- 
ters of  Thomas  Moore  to  his  Music-Publisher,  James  Power  (the  publica- 
tion of  which  was  suppressed  in  London),  with  an  Introductory  Letter 
from  Thomas  Crofton  Croker,  Esq.,  E.  S.  A.  With  four  Engravings  on 
steel.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  50. 

Fifty  Years  in  Both  Hemispheres;  or,  Reminiscences  of 
a Merchant’s  Life.  By  Vincent  Nolte.  12mo.  Price  $1  25.  (Eighth 
Edition.) 

Men  and  Women  of  the  Eighteenth  Century.  By 

Arsene  Houssaye.  With  beautifully-engraved  Portraits  of  Louis  XV. 
and  Madame  de  Pompadour.  2 vols.,  12mo,  450  pages  each,  extra  super- 
fine paper.  Price  $2  50. 

Pliilosophers  and  Actresses.  By  Arsene  Houssaye. 

With  beautifully-engraved  Portraits  of  Voltaire  and  Madame  Parabcre. 
2 vols.,  12mo.  Price  $2  50. 

Life  of  the  Honorable  William  H.  Seward,  with  Selec- 
tions from  his  Works.  Edited  by  George  E.  Baker.  12mo,  cloth. 
Portrait.  Price  $1  00. 


4 REDFIELD’S  publications. — HISTORY  AND  BIOGRAPHY. 


The  History  of  Texas,  from  its  Settlement  in  1685  to  its 

Annexation  to  the  United  States.  By  H.  Y'oakum,  Esq.,  of  the  Texas 
Bar;  with  Portraits,  Maps,  and  Plans.  2 vols.,  8vo,  cloth  or  sheep. 
Price  $5  00. 

The  History  of  Louisiana — Spanish  Domination.  By 

Charles  Gayarre.  8vo,  cloth.  Price  $2  50. 

The  History  of  Louisiana — French  Domination.  By 

Charles  Gayarre.  2 vols.,  8vo,  cloth.  Price  $3  50. 

The  Life  of  P.  T.  Barnum,  written  by  himself;  in  which 

he  narrates  his  early  history  as  Clerk,  Merchant,  and  Editor,  and  his  later 
career  as  a Showman.  With  a Portrait  on  steel,  and  numerous  Illustra- 
tions by  Darley.  1 voL,  12mo.  Price  $1  25. 

A Memorial  of  Horatio  Greenough,  consisting  of  a 

Memoir,  Selections  from  his  Writings,  and  Tributes  to  his  Genius,  by 
Henry  T.  Tuckerman,  Author  of  Sicily,  a Pilgrimage,^^  A Month 
in  England,^^  &c.,  &c.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  75  cents. 

Minnesota  and  its  Resources;  to  which  are  appended 

Camp-Eire  Sketches,  or  Notes  of  a Trip  from  St.  Paul  to  Pembina  and 
Selkirk  Settlements  on  the  Red  River  of  the  North.  By  J.  Wesley  Bond. 
With  a New  Map  of  the  Territory,  a View  of  St.  Paul,  and  one  of  the 
Falls  of  St.  Anthony.  I vol.,  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  00. 

Tlie  Private  Life  of  an  Eastern  King.  By  a Member  of 

the  Household  of  his  Late  Majesty,  Nussir-u-deen,  King  of  Oude.  12mo, 
cloth.  Price  75  cents.  [In  Press.] 

Doran’s  Queens  of  England.  The  Queens  of  England, 

of  the  House  of  Hanover.  By  Dr.  Doran,  Author  of  Table  Traits,^' 
Habits  and  Men,"'  &c.  2 vols.,  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $2  00.  [In  Press.] 


REDFIELD’S  publications. — VOYAGES  AND  TRAVELS. 


0 


VOYAGES  AND  TRAVELS. 

The  TJ.  S.  Japan  Expedition.  Japan  and  Around  the 

World.  An  Account  of  Three  Visits  to  the  Japanese  Empire,  with 
Sketches  of  Madeira,  St.  Helena,  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  Mauritius,  Ceylon, 
Singapore,  China,  Loo  Choo,  &c.,  1852  to  1855.  By  J.  W.  Spalding, 
Captain's  Clerk  of  the  Flagship  “Mississippi."  1 vol.,  12mo,  with  Illus- 
trations. Cloth.  Price  $1  25. 

Cosas  de  Espaha.  (Strange  Things  of  Spain.)  Going  to 

Madrid  via  Barcelona.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  00. 

A Month  in  England.  By  Henry  T.  Tpckerman,  Author 

of  “ Sicily,  a Pilgrimage,"  “ The  Optimist,"  &c.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  75  cts. 

Sicily,  a Pilgrimage,  by  Henry  T.  Tuckerman,  Author 

of  “A  Month  in  England,"  &c.,  &c.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  75  cents. 

A Tennessean  Abroad  ; or.  Letters  from  Europe,  Asia, 
and  Africa.  By  Eandall  W.  McGavock,  A.  M.,  L.  L.  B.,  Member  of 
the  Nashville  Bar.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  00. 

Life  in  the  Mission,  the  Camp,  and  the  Zenana.  By  Mrs. 

Colin  Mackenzie.  2 vols.,  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $2  00. 

The  Bussian  Shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  with  a Voyage 

down  the  Volga,  and  a Tour  through  the  Country  of  the  Cossacks.  By 
Laurence  Oliphant,  Author  of  “A  Journey  to  Nepaul."  Fourth 
Edition.  12mo,  cloth.  Two  maps  and  eighteen  cuts.  Price  75  cents. 

A Year  with  the  Turks;  or.  Sketches  of  Travel  in  the 

European  and  Asiatic  Dominions  of  the  Sultan.  By  Warrington  W. 
Smyth,  A.  M.  With  a colored  Ethnological  Map  of  the  Turkish  Empire. 
Third  Edition.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  75  cents. 

Eusso-Turkish  Campaigns  of  1828  and  1829.  With  a 

View  of  the  Present  State  of  Affairs  in  the  East.  By  Colonel  Chesnet, 
R.  A.,  D.  C.  L.,  F.  R.  S.,  Author  of  the  Expedition  for  the  Survey  of  the 
Rivers  Euphrates  and  Tigris.  With  an  Appendix,  containing  the  Diplo- 
matic Correspondence  of  the  Four  Powers,  and  the  Secret  Correspondence 
between  the  Russian  and  English  Governments.  1 vol.,  12mo,  cloth ; 
Maps.  Price  $l  00. 

White,  Red,  and  Black.  Sketches  of  American  Society, 

during  the  Visits  of  their  Guests.  By  Francis  and  Theresa  Pulszky. 
2 vols.,  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $2  00. 

The  Blackwater  Chronicle:  A Narrative  of  an  Expedi- 
tion into  the  Land  of  Canaan,  in  Randolph  County,  Virginia,  a Country 
flowing  with  Wild  Animals,  such  as  Panthers,  Bears,  Wolves,  Elk,  Deer, 
Otter,  Badger,  &c.,  &c.,  with  innumerable  Trout,  by  Five  Adventurous 
Gentlemen,  without  any  Aid  of  Government,  and  solely  by  their  Own  Re- 
sources, in  the  Summer  of  1851.  By  “ The  Clerke  of  Oxenforde." 
With  Illustrations  from  Life  by  Strother.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  00. 


6 


REDFIELD’S  publications. — SCIENCE  AND  ART. 


SCIENCE  AND  ART. 

Griscom  on  Ventilation.  The  Uses  and  Abuses  of  Air; 

showing  its  Influence  in  Sustaining  Life,  and  Producing  Disease,  with  re- 
marks on  the  Ventilation  of  Houses,  and  the  best  Methods  of  Securing  a 
Pure  and  Wholesome  Atmosphere  inside  of  Dwellings,  Churches,  Work- 
shops, &c.  By  John  H.  Griscom,  M.  D.  1 voL,  12mo.  Price  75  cents. 

Bronchitis,  and  Kindred  Diseases.  In  language  adapted 

to  common  readers.  By  W.  W.  Hall,  M.  D.  1 vol.,  12mo.  Price 
$1  00. 

Bodenhamer  on  the  Diseases  of  the  Rectum.  Practical 

Observations  on  some  of  the  Diseases  of  the  Bectum,  Anus,  and  Continu- 
ous Textures ; giving  their  Nature,  Seat,  Causes,  Symptoms,  Conse- 
quences, and  Prevention;  especially  addressed  to  non-medical  readers. 
By  W.  Bodenhamer,  M.  D.  Second  edition,  with  plates,  «Sbc.  In  1 vol., 
8vo,  cloth.  Price  $2  00. 

Comparative  Physiognomy ; or,  Resemblances  between 

Men  and  Animals.  By  J.  W.  Bedfield,  M.  D.  1 vol.,  8vo,  with  sev- 
eral hundred  Illustrations.  Price  $2  00. 

Episodes  of  Insect  Life.  By  Acheta  Domestica.  In 

three  Series: — 1.  Insects  of  Spring.  2.  Insects  of  Summer.  3.  Insects 
of  Autumn.  Beautifully  Illustrated.  Crown  8vo,  cloth,  gilt,  $2  00  each. 
The  same  beautifully  colored  after  Nature,  extra  gilt,  $4  00  each. 

Narratives  of  Sorcery  and  Magic,  from  the  most  Authen- 

tic Sources.  By  Thomas  Wright,  A.  M.,  &c.  1 vol.,  12mo.  Price 

$1  25. 

The  Night-Side  of  Nature  ; or,  Ghosts  and  Ghost-Seers. 

By  Catharine  Crowe.  1 vol.,  12mo.  Price  $1  00. 

Art  and  Industry,  as  represented  in  the  Exhibition  at  the 

Crystal  Palace,  New  York.  Showing  the  Progress  and  State  of  the  vari- 
ous Useful  and  Esthetic  Pursuits.  Prom  the  “New  York  Tribune. Be- 
vised  and  Edited  by  Horace  GHeeley.  12mo,  cloth,  fine  paper,  $1  00. 
Paper  covers,  50  cents. 

Chapman’s  American  Drawing-Book.  The  American 

Drawing-Book,  intended  for  Schools,  Academies,  and  Self-Instruction. 
By  John  G.  Chapman,  N.  A.  Three  Parts  now  published.  Price 
50  cents  each. 

Tlie  History  and  Poetry  of  Finger-Rings.  By  Charles 

Edwards,  Esq.,  Counsellor-at-Law.  With  Illustrations,  12mo,  cloth. 
Price  $1  00. 


redfield's  publication^^'.— belles-lettres. 


BELLES-LETTEES. 

Eevolntionary  Tales,  by  Wm.  Gilmore  Simms,  Esq.  New  and  Ee- 
vised  Editions,  with  Illustrations  by  Barley. 

The  Partisan  ; A Romance  of  the  Revolution.  12mo, 

cloth.  Price  $1  25. 

Mellichampe ; A Legend  of  the  Santee.  12mo5  cloth. 

Price  $1  25. 

Katharine  "Walton;  or.  The  Rebel  of  Dorchester.  12mo5 

cloth.  Price  $1  25. 

The  Scout;  or,  The  Black  Riders  of  the  Congaree. 

12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  25. 

Woodcraft;  or,  The  Hawks  about  the  Dovecote.  12mo, 

cloth.  Price  $1  25. 

The  Forayers;  or.  The  Raid  of  the  Dog-Days.  A Hew 

Revolutionary  Romance.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  25. 

Eutaw.  A Hew  Revolutionary  Romance.  12mo,  cloth. 

Price  $1  25.  [In  Press.] 

Simms’s  Border  Eomances  of  the  South,  New  and  Revised  Editions, 
with  Illustrations  by  Barley.  Uniform  with  Simms's  Revolutionary 
Tales. 

I.  Guy  Rivers.  A Tale  of  Georgia.  12mo,  cloth. 

Price  $1  25. 

II.  Richard  Ilurdis.  A Tale  of  Alabama.  12mo,  cloth. 

Price  $1  25. 

III.  Border  Beagles.  A Tale  of  Mississippi.  12mo,  cloth. 

Price  $1  25. 

lY.  Charlemont.  A Tale  of  Kentucky.  12mo,  cloth. 

Price  $1  25.  [In  Press.] 

Y.  Beauchampe ; or,  The  Kentucky  Tragedy.  12mo, 

cloth.  Price  $1  25.  [In  Press.] 

YI.  Confession;  or.  The  Blind  Heart.  12mo,  cloth. 

Price  $1  25.  [In  Press.] 

The  Yemassee ; A Romance  of  South  Carolina.  By 

Wm.  Gilmore  Simms,  Esq.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  25. 

Southward,  Ho  ! a Spell  of  Sunshine.  By  Wm.  Gil- 
more Simms,  Esq.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  25. 


8 


redfield’s  publications. — ^’belles-lettres. 


The  ^Toctes  Ambrosianse.  By  Professor  Wilson,  J.  Gt. 

Lockhart,  James  Hogg,  and  Dr.  Maginn.  Ldited,  with  Memoirs  and 
Notes,  by  Dr.  K.  Shelton  Mackenzie.  In  5 volumes.  Price  $5  00. 

The  Odolierty  Papers  ; forming  tlie  first  portion  of  the 

Miscellaneous  Writings  of  the  late  Dr.  Maginn.  With  an  Original 
Memoir,  and  copious  Notes,  by  Dr.  R.  Shelton  Mackenzie.  2 vols. 
Price  $2  00. 

Tlie  Shakespeare  Papers,  and  the  Homeric  Ballads ; 

forming  Vol.  III.  of  the  Miscellaneous  Writings  of  the  late  Dr.  Maginn. 
Edited  by  Dr.  R.  Shelton  Mackenzie.  [In  Press.] 

Bits  of  Blarney.  By  Dr.  R.  Shelton  Mackenzie, 

Editor  of  “ SheiEs  Sketches  of  the  Irish  Bar,^^  ^^Noctes  Ambrosianae,” 
&c.  i2mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  00. 

Table  Traits.  By  Dr.  Doran,  Autlior  of  Habits  and 

Men,^^  &c.  12mo,  cloth.  $1  00. 

Habits  and  Men.  By  Dr.  Doran,  Author  of  Table 

Traits,’^  The  Queens  of  England  under  the  House  of  Hanover.^^  12mo, 
Price  $1  00. 

Calavar;  The  Knight  of  the  Conquest.  A Romance  of 

Mexico.  By  the  late  Dr.  Robert  Montgomery  Bird,  Author  of 
“ Nick  of  the  Woods  with  Illustrations  by  Darley.  12mo,  cloth.  Price 
$1  25. 

Nick  of  the  Woods,  or  the  Jibbenainosay.  A Tale  of 

Kentucky.  By  the  late  Dr.  Robert  Montgomery  Bird,  Author  of 
Calavar,’^  The  Infidel,'"  &c.  New  and  Revised  Edition,  with  Illustra- 
tions by  Darley.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  25. 

The  Pretty  Plate;  A New  and  Beautiful  Juvenile.  By 

John  Vincent.  Illustrated  by  Darley.  1 voL,  16mo,  cloth,  gilt.  Price 
50  cents;  extra  gilt  edges,  75  cents. 

Vasconselos.  A Romance  of  the  New  World.  By 

Frank  Cooper.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  25. 

A Stray  Yankee  in  Texas.  By  Philip  Paxton.  With 

Illustrations  by  Darley.  Second  Edition.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  25. 

The  Wonderful  Adventures  of  Capt.  Priest.  By  Philip 

Paxton.  With  Illustrations  by  Darley.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  00. 

Western  Characters;  being  Types  of  Border  Life  in  the 

Western  States.  By  J.  L.  M^Connel,  Author  of  “ Talbot  and  Vernon,'^ 
The  Glenns,"  &c.,  &c.  With  Six  Illustrations  by  Darley.  12mo,  cloth. 
Price  $l  25. 

Summerfield;  or.  Life  on  a Farm.  By  Day  Kellogg 

Lee.  1 vol.,  12mo.  Price  $1  00. 

The  Master-Builder  ; or.  Life  at  a Trade.  By  Day  Kel- 

logg Lee.  1 vol.,  12mo.  Price  $1  00. 

Merrimack ; or,  Life  at  the  Loom.  By  Day  Kellogg 

Lee.  1 vol.,  12mo.  Price  $1  00. 


REDFIELD'S  publications. B'ELLES-LETTRES.  9 


The  Works  of  Edgar  Allan  Poe.  Complete  in  three  vol- 
umes. With  a Portrait;  a Memoir  by  James  Bussell  Lowell;  and  an 
Introductory  Essay  by  N.  P.  Willis.  Edited  by  Burns  W.  Griswold. 
12mo.  Price  $3  50. 

The  Cavaliers  of  England  ; or,  The  Times  of  the  Revolu- 
tions of  1642  and  1688.  By  Henry  William  Herbert.  1 voL,  12mo. 
Price  25. 

Knights  of  England,  France,  and  Scotland.  By  Henry 

William  Herbert.  1 voL,  12mo.  Price  $1  25. 

The  Chevaliers  of  France,  from  the  Crusaders  to  the 

Maresclials  of  Louis  XIV.  By  Henry  William  Herbert.  Author 
of  “ The  Cavaliers  of  England/"  Cromwell/"  “ The  Brothers/"  &c.,  &c. 
1 voL,  12mo.  Price  $1  25.  ^ 

Marmadiike  Wyvil;  An  Historical  Romance  of  1651. 

By  Henry  William  Herbert,  Author  of  The  Cavaliers  of  England/" 
&c.,  &c.  Fourteenth  Edition.  Bevised  and  Corrected.  Price  $1  25. 

The  Forest.  By  J.  V.  Hunting-ton,  Author  of  ^‘Lady 

Alice/"  Alban,""  &c.  1 vol.,  12mo.  Second  Edition.  Price  $1  25. 

Alban  ; or.  The  History  of  a Young  Puritan.  By  J. 

V.  Huntington.  2 vols,,  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $2  00. 

Isa:  a Pilgrimage.  By  Caroline  Chesebro’.  1 vol., 

12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  00. 

The  Children  of  Light.  By  Caroline  Chesebro’,  Author 

of  ‘^Isa,  a Pilgrimage/"  “Dream-Land  by  Daylight,""  &c.,  &c.  12mo, 

cloth.  Price  $1  00. 

Dream-Land  by  Daylight:  A Panorama  of  Romance. 

By  Caroline  Chesebro".  Illustrated  by  Darley.  1 vol.,  12mo.  Price 
$1  25. 

Clovernook;  or.  Recollections  of  Our  Neighborhood,  in 
the  West.  By  Alice  Carey.  Illustrated  by  Darley.  First  and  Second 
Series.  Fourth  Edition.  2 vols.  12mo.  Price  $2  00. 

Hagar ; A Story  of  To-Day.  By  Alice  Carey,  Author 

of  “ Clovernook,""  “Lyra,  and  Other  Poems,""  &c.  1 vol.,  12mo.  Price 

$1  00. 

Cap-Sheaf,  a Fresh  Bundle.  By  Lewis  Myrtle.  1 vol., 

12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  00. 

The  Youth  of  Jefferson;  or,  A Chronicle  of  College 

Scrapes  at  Williamsburg,  Va.,  1764.  Cloth.  Price  75  cents. 

Tales  and  Traditions  of  Hungaiy.  By  Theresa  Pulszky. 

' With  a Portrait  uf  the  Author.  1 vol.  Price  $1  25. 

The  Lion  Skin  and  the  Lover  Hunt.  By  Charles  be 

Bernard.  12mo.  Price  $1  00. 

Fasy  Warren  and  his  Cotemporaries:  Sketched,  for 

Home  Circles.  By  William  Turner  Coggeshall.  Price  $1  00. 


10 


REDFIELD’S  publications. — BELLES-LETTRES. 


Yon  Have  heard  of  Them  : being  Sketches  of  Statesmen 

and  Politicians,  Painters,  Composers,  Instrumentalists  and  Vocalists,  Au- 
thors and  Authoresses.  By  Q.  With  Portraits  on  Steel  of  Horace  Ver- 
net  and  Julia  Grisi.  12mo,  cloth.  Price  $1  00. 

Satire  and  Satirists.  By  James  Hannay.  121110,  cloth. 

Price  75  cents. 

Full  Proof  of  the  Ministry.  By  the  Rev.  John  N.  Nor- 
ton. 12mo,  cloth.  Price  75  cents. 

Dickens’s  Little  Folks,  in  a Series  of  18mo  Volumes,  with  Illustrations, 
Neatly  Bound  in  Cloth.  Price  38  cents. 

1.  Little  Nell.  4.  Florence  Dombey. 

2.  Oliver  and  the  Jew  Fagin.  5.  Smike. 

3.  Little  Paul.  6.  The  Child  \Yife. 

This  is  a series  of  volumes  which  has  been  undertaken  with  a view  to  supply 
the  want  of  a class  of  books  for  children,  of  a vigorous,  manly  tone,  combined 
with  a plain  and  concise  mode  of  narration.  The  writings  of  Charles  Dickens 
have  been  selected  as  the  basis  of  the  scheme,  on  account  of  the  well-known 
excellence  of  his  portrayal  of  children,  and  the  interests  connected  with  chil- 
dren— qualities  which  have  given  his  volumes  their  strongest  hold  on  the 
hearts  of  parents.  With  this  view  the  career  of  Little  Nell  and  her 
Grandfather,  Oliver,  Little  Paul,  Florence  Dombey,  Smike,  and 
the  Child-Wife,  have  been  detached  from  the  large  mass  of  matter  with 
which  they  were  originally  connected,  and  presented,  in  the  author's  ouon  lan- 
guage, to  a new  class  of  readers,  to  whom  the  litUe  volume  will,  we  doubt 
not,  be  as  attractive  as  the  larger  originals  have  so  long  proved  to  the  general 
public. 


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